Thanks for being with us. Guest the potted plant line comes from a friend of his, harvard law professor who went to law school with him and his hot law classes with him since he has become chief justice. Wants to playrts some role and to make himself known a little bit. He thinks just to sit there and let the majority do what it wants to either way would not be fulfilling his job. Mentioned,nd as you there is no roadmap for this. Roberts is only the third person to preside over a president ial impeachment trial. There is nothing in the constitution that says what his powers are except to preside. Open for the chief justice to find his own role in this. Host one of the questions weve been hearing in terms of the trial, if there is a tie, the Vice President cannot break the tie. What is the role of the chief justice . Guest thats a good question. Everything goes through him. The centers are not allowed to questions. They have to write questions down and send it to the chief justice and decide question for the house managers or for the president s defense team. All of those things go through him. Justice likechief rehnquist who presided over the bill clinton impeachment trial work outher the senate these things on its own. One of the few decisions that rehnquist made was to tell senators not to consider themselves just jurors. They were the court as well. They were making up the rules for this. Think that was the best way to do it. The question is can the senate agree on anything. Host the work of the court continues. Thats directly across 1st street from the capital. On friday, you posted the story about the Electoral College. Can you elaborate on that point . Guest its an interesting issue, whether those who are elected to be members of the Electoral College have to do with their states tell them to or if they are seen in the constitution as 2016 thereast were people who did not vote for the person they were supposed to vote for because of the results in their state. Say, in 2000, that was decided by five electoral votes. That would have been enough to make a difference in that race. There has never been one where the electors went for the other candidate. It just completely ignored it. They usually vote for a third party or they withhold their vote as a protest. Question the Supreme Court has never taken on. Courtes sense that the takes the case now rather than waiting for something to happen. Their decision would be deciding the winner of the race. You might remember the court doesnt like to do that. Host we are talking with Robert Barnes from the washington post. In thes of the calendar schedule, the trial will begin tuesday at 1 00. The schedule will include what . Ofst it comes at something a good time for the chief justice. There are oral arguments on tuesday and wednesday. He will spend his morning at the Supreme Court and will take a quick car ride across the street to the capital to begin residing over the impeachment trial. After wednesday, there are no more oral arguments for four weeks. This is a regularly scheduled break in the court schedule. They are about halfway through the term for oral arguments. It normally takes this break so they can start writing opinions in some cases theyve already heard since october. While it has worked out in the past that impeachment only takes place in the afternoons so the chief justice in the senate can do other work. They could for the third time in history, the u. S. President is on trial in the u. S. Senate. The Senate Impeachment trial of president trump, live unfiltered coverage on cspan2, ondemand at cspan. Org impeachment. When the impeachment trial continues this week in the senate, here is a look at the legal team that will be representing president trump. Jay sekulow has served as the president s personal attorney, robert ray and ken starr both worked on investigations into the clintons, and alan dershowitz, a wellknown defense attorney. Formerttorneys include Florida Attorney general pop indie and jane masking