Impeachment Maelstrom Pulls Chief Justice Into Politics He Shuns

As a presidential impeachment trial loomed in 1999, John Roberts thought about William Rehnquist, the U.S. chief justice who was set to preside.

“If anybody can do it, I’m sure the current chief will,” Roberts said of Rehnquist, who had written a book about impeachment. Roberts, now chief justice himself, was then a lawyer in private practice and spoke in a Bloomberg News interview.

Two decades later, the same words could apply to Roberts, who has tried to carve out a nonpartisan role as the leader of the Supreme Court. Now he will oversee President Donald Trump’s Senate ...