Washington, D.C. — US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has reportedly been victimized by credit card fraud.
Apparently some wrongdoer wanted to know what was in his wallet.
Roberts and his eight colleagues were very much in the news this week as he presided over oral arguments in the Proposition 8 and Defense of Marriage Act cases.
But this additional news of another kind indicates that even the top judge in the country is hardly immune from identify theft.
The chief justice reportedly revealed the information about credit card fraud to a Starbucks cashier on Tuesday morning:
“Roberts usually uses a credit card to buy his morning coffee at his local Starbucks in suburban Maryland. But on Tuesday, when he needed to be extra sharp for the arguments that day over California’s ban of same-sex marriage, he had to pay in cash. Seems someone had gotten his credit-card numbers, he told the cashier, and he was obliged to cancel the card.”
It does seem odd that he would feel it necessary to discuss this matter with a barista, but according to another media account, Roberts made a similar disclosure about having to pay in cash rather than with plastic at a D.C. barbershop the following day. Presumably he has more than one card, though.
Roberts, a conservative jurist appointed to the High Court by President George W. Bush, generally votes with his fellow right-of-center colleagues on most cases, with the notable and far-reaching exception of the the 5-4 Obamacare ruling that upheld the individual mandate. There is speculation that he will vote to overturn California’s gay-marriage ban, but it will be June before any decision is likely released in that case and in the DOMA case.
A Supreme Court spokeswoman has confirmed the John Roberts credit card fraud but declined to provide any further details on how it happened.
Have you ever been a victim of credit card fraud?
