Illustration by Paul Rogers / Source photograph by Erin Schaff / GettyIn March of 2025, after giving his annual address to Congress, President Donald Trump patted the shoulder of Chief Justice John Roberts, who had been sitting in the chamber, and was seen telling him, “Thank you again—won’t forget.” “Nobody who knows Roberts thinks that he could have found the gesture anything other than embarrassing,” Margaret Talbot writes in a new Profile of the Justice and the Court he leads, published in this week’s issue. Yet if Roberts is bothered by this fact, Talbot finds no clear evidence. One of the questions she sets out to answer is why Roberts lost some of his power. The other is whether, as the conservative legal victories keep piling up, Roberts actually prefers his new, more limited influence.