It’s up to Chief Justice Roberts to preserve the Smithsonian’s independence

If these were normal times, there would be wistful celebration of Lonnie G. Bunch III’s decision to step down as secretary of the Smithsonian. He has been an enormously consequential leader of one of this country’s most beloved institutions. He served the Smithsonian for almost four decades and brought it both stability and vision as its top leader. Bunch wasn’t just the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened in 2016. He enlisted an astonishingly broad coalition of people invested in the museum’s success and purpose, including audiences, who have made it one of the essential stops on the Washington pilgrimage.