John Roberts Defies the Supreme Court

For logistical convenience, each federal circuit court of appeals is assigned to a specific justice. Some get multiple circuits, and the chief justice always gets the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, This allows litigants to direct their motions to that specific justice rather than assemble all nine members every time. The justice in question is referred to as a “circuit justice” in this capacity, evoking the long-bygone practice where Supreme Court justices would “ride circuit” and hear appeals across the country on horseback.

In this capacity, Roberts is effectively operating as a lower-court judge in the sense that his decisions can still be reviewed by a higher court, albeit one on which he serves. When a circuit justice receives a motion, they have two options. They can resolve it themselves in their individual capacity (by issuing an emergency stay or declining to do so outright), or they can refer it to the entire court for their collective judgment.

As a matter of course, anything even slightly more than controversial or debatable is referred to the entire court for consideration. The circuit justice can impose an “administrative stay” on their own, but this was historically not seen as a decision in either direction—it was simply a brief pause until the other eight justices could get on the phone. (You can imagine how important this would be when, say, someone was about to be executed.)