biographies, especially about chief justice john roberts. i want to ask you about john roberts here. he's under the microscope and has been throughout this term but also, specifically, with these decisions. you studied him, a major concern of his all along, joan, to maintain the image that the court is a non-partisan independent body, they're above it. what are these rulings today do to that? >> reporter: thanks, kate. it was an amazing 50 minutes in the courtroom with the chief obviously playing this crucial role. in the first one, the message he was sending was actually more political than he let on because for the first time, the supreme court is saying, we are not going to police these extreme partisan gerrymandering, which mostly have been benefitting republicans. so that was a deeply divided case that prompted that very moving dissent from the bench by elena kagen that said, pay attention to what's happening to democracy here. kate, first you have that and it