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A snapshot of where things stand as the nominee and the senators grab their lunch.

* Roberts believes that precedents are starting points and deserving of significant respect; and that departures "jolt" the system but believes there are several appropriate ways to interrogate precedents
* Roberts refuses to answer questions about Roe but suggests that he would be hard pressed to depart from its precedent without darn good reasons; still, stare decisis is a concept that yields "inexorable commands"

* Roberts endorses a constitutional right to privacy; suggests he agrees with substantive due-process jurisprudence
* Roberts declines to call himself an originalist like Scalia; says he is a "modest" judge
* Roberts suggests that the Lochner-era cases were inappropriate policy-making forays by the court
* Roberts's faith will not prevent him from applying precedent
* Roberts did not morally object to helping Romer
* Roberts spars with Kennedy over the relevance of Roberts' 1980s writings on voting rights
* Sen. Biden and Roberts have an acrimonious exchange; see previous post.

Posted by Marc Ambinder | 12:48 PM