John Roberts

John Roberts has been Chief Justice of the United States since 2005. In October 2026 he handled the first stage of FCC v. Brown (26A476), the fight over whether party committees may buy broadcast airtime at the discounted rate candidates get. On 8 October, acting as Circuit Justice for the 4th Circuit, he issued an administrative stay pausing that court's order that the Federal Communications Commission rule on a challenge to its March guidance by noon the next day. The full Court granted a stay on 14 October; Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have refused it.

President George W. Bush nominated Roberts in 2005 to succeed William Rehnquist, for whom he had once clerked. He was 50, the youngest Chief Justice since John Marshall. He previously sat on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.

The 2026 term put several election-law cases before his Court. Roberts joined Amy Coney Barrett's 5-4 majority in Watson v. RNC, which let Mississippi count mail ballots postmarked by election day and received up to five business days later. A day later the Court struck the federal caps on party-candidate coordinated spending 6-3 in NRSC v. FEC, the ruling that turned the candidate ad rate into a question for party money.