First, unlike Chief Justice Rehnquist (and Kayne West) he let Miguel Estrada “finish.”

One final point that has to do with the Solicitor General’s insistence on the no-business language. Rules 5.1 of the Senate — may I finish?

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS:

Yes. MR. ESTRADA: — makes very clear — it’s also in our appendix — that any business may conducted — be conducted at any time, without notice, by unanimous consent. And so that effectively, what we have here is merely an announcement by the Senate that between December 17th and January 23rd, only unanimous consent business would be agreed to.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Thank you, counsel. General Verrilli, 6 minutes.

Then he gave the Solicitor General “a few more minutes.”

JUSTICE BREYER: The question of reports. There were reports, remember? Sorry, I didn’t mean to — your six minutes couldn’t be up already.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Take a few more minutes.

(Laughter.)

GENERAL VERRILLI: I was thinking the same thing, Your Honor.

And then, he got even more time to make a (gasp) closing argument (like he did in NFIB):

GENERAL VERRILLI: Well, I think it, as I said, I think there is an equilibrium here and the 30 days doesn’t fully capture it. And let me just talk about that if I could.

JUSTICE BREYER: Briefly.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Briefly.

GENERAL VERRILLI: Yes, thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, briefly.