Chief Justice takes back the reins at the Supreme Court this term

There have been times this term when Chief Justice John Roberts looked worn, grayer, even weary. Now we know why.

Roberts, the institutionalist, was straining to find ways that would pull the court back just enough to the center, to avoid the sudden and sustained public backlash that followed last term's cascade of ultra conservative rulings, including most of all, the reversal of Roe v. Wade--a decision that he did not join.

At this time last year, court observers were saying that the chief justice had lost control of his own conservative majority. The five other conservatives, including three Trump appointees, didn't need him; they could--and did in the abortion case--prevail without him, producing results that were the most conservative in 90 years. The court, in fact, was a conservative juggernaut that produced one sweeping decision after another.

And the public