 sarah raises an interesting point about the role of the chief justice as an institutionalist for nearly 20 years he has been preaching that the court is not a partisan institution at the end of this term is it harder for him to make that case i mean i don't think already there's any question you know if you look at the median votes in some of the most important cases this term i think a lot of us started the term trying to figure out who would be the other justice who might sometimes go along with the chief