Roberts’s Rules

Just wanted to highlight something I wrote yesterday about Chief Justice John Roberts and his inauguration flub. President Obama (!) was gracious enough to exonerate him and even credit Roberts for helping him out. But it sure seemed like Roberts flubbed it and had no notes at hand to help him out. Vice President Joe Biden was not so forgiving. Yesterday I noted in a TPMDC world exclusive–theme music, please–that I had talked with someone who works with Roberts. This person noted to me about ten days ago that Roberts was studying hard for the inaugural and was taking his preparation very seriously. At the time I didn’t give it much thought. But I should have asked myself why he’d need to study at all. The oath is short enough that one might easily memorize it and you could always bring notes if you didn’t but it doesn’t seem like the latter occurred to the chief justice.