Who is the Chief Justice of the United States now?

Why this is the answer

The answer is the name of the person serving as Chief Justice of the United States on the day of your interview. USCIS posts that name on its test updates page and tells applicants to answer with the official in office at the time of the interview, so check it again shortly before you go. This page shows the name currently listed there. The Chief Justice is one of the nine justices of the Supreme Court and serves as its leader. The study guide lists three duties: leading the other justices in choosing which cases to hear, managing the courtroom when the Court hears a case, and leading the discussions in which the justices decide it. Leading the Court is not the same as controlling it, though. Each justice makes their own decision when voting. The office is named only once in the Constitution, and not in the article on the courts. Article I, Section 3 provides that when the President is tried on impeachment, "the Chief Justice shall preside" over the Senate trial. Like every federal judge, the Chief Justice holds office during good behavior, with no fixed term, so the name on this answer changes much less often than the names of elected officials. It does change, which is why the official answer points to a web page instead of naming anyone. The 2008 version of the test asked the same question in the same words, and it too sent applicants to the updates page. Three wrong answers are easy to give. One is the name of a different justice. Another is a former Chief Justice remembered from older materials. A third mistake is naming the Attorney General, who leads the Department of Justice and sits in the President's Cabinet, not on any court. And saying only "the Chief Justice" without a name does not answer the question, because it asks who holds the office now. Look the name up before your interview and say it out loud a few times so it comes easily.