The Case of the Missing Chief Justice | Opinion Jeffrey J. Poelvoorde and Bradford P. Wilson On 2/10/21 at 7:00 AM EST In 1936, Justice Owen Roberts in U.S. v. Butler famously described the judicial duty of determining a law's constitutionality: "to lay the article of the Constitution which is invoked beside the statute which is challenged and to decide whether the latter squares with the former." Though sometimes derided as "mechanical" and "simplistic," this description captures nicely the essence of constitutional judgment, one fully in accord with the understanding of the greatest of our judges, Chief Justice John Marshall. In the case of the impending impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, Justice Roberts's words illuminate the fatal constitutional defect of this flawed and rushed attempt to mask mob rule behind the guise of constitutionalism.