Once a year, as another December gives way to a chill January, Chief Justice John Roberts rereads a poem published in 1749 by the great writer, moralist and late-night conversationalist Samuel Johnson.
After God cast Lucifer and his followers into darkness, all the fallen angels came straggling together on the plains of hell — to recriminate, to console themselves and to discuss their new identities as devils. It may be time for men to hold a convention for the same purpose.