John Roberts in Newsweek

I was interested in gauging how realistic it is to hope that Roberts might become a centrist voter if appointed to the Supreme Court. Newsweek seemed to take an optimistic view, saying that Roberts is a intelligent free thinker who is often unpredicatable, and rather than running with the herd, his first allegiance is to the law. To illustrate, they gave some droll anecdotes, of which I remember two:

As a kid, Roberts got in trouble for throwing an orange at a wall. He claimed that it was not his fault because the orange was intended to hit a boy, who ducked, instead of the wall. The fault therefore belonged to the ducking boy.

When Roberts was arguing against a prison inmate who claimed that it was cruel and unusual for him to have to share a cell with a smoker, the judge asked Roberts whether he would consider it cruel if that inmate had to sit in a cell full of asbestos. Roberts replied that at restaurants, you don't get asked whether you'd prefer to sit in an asbestos or non-asbestos section.

Intelligent? Okay, I'll give you that. But free thinker? I'd say he sounds more like an asshole.