Moments ago, under questioning by Senator Grassley, John Roberts had a number of interesting responses about his jurisprudential moorings.

  If I heard and understood Roberts correctly, his foundation is a strong lawyerly commitment to stare decisis. He not only repeatedly expressed the importance of stare decisis; he also indicated that in the rare situations when he might overrule a prior case, he would faithfully apply the Court's prior statements as to when a case should be overruled. In effect, he would depart from existing law only by following the preexisting meta-rules on when he should depart.

  As for grand constitutional theories, he suggested that such commitments are for legal academics more than judges tasked with deciding cases. The reality of decisionmaking by committee, whether in a panel of three judges or nine, is that "the nuances of academic theory" are put aside. Interesting stuff.

  Did others get the same impression that I did? I may have missed a few things, but that was the gist of what I heard.