John Roberts, U.S. chief justice nominee
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – John Roberts had hoped to soon join
Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court. Now
Roberts likely will succeed the late legal giant, who was one
of his earliest conservative mentors.
A generation ago, Roberts served as a young law clerk to
Rehnquist, helping the then associate justice research and
write court opinions.
President George W. Bush nominated Roberts, a federal
appeals court judge for the past two years who has also worked
in two Republican administrations, to replace Rehnquist, who
died on September 3 after a long bout with cancer.
“I am honored and humbled by the confidence that the
president has shown in me,” Roberts said as he stood beside
Bush in the Oval Office.
“And I’m very much aware that if I am confirmed, I would
succeed a man I deeply respect and admire, a man who has been
very kind to me for 25 years,” Roberts said.
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on
Monday to decide whether Roberts should become the country’s
17th chief justice.
It was a turnabout for the committee. It had been prepared
to open hearings on Bush’s earlier nomination in July of
Roberts to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a
moderate conservative who often cast the decisive vote on the
closely divided nine-member court.
Rehnquist’s death gave Bush a historic opportunity to
reshape the court, which interprets the U.S. Constitution and
decides major legal questions such as abortion.
Bush changed the nomination so Roberts could replace
Rehnquist, one of the most powerful and conservative jurists in
U.S. history during a more than 30-year career on the Supreme
Court.
At 50, Roberts would be the youngest chief justice in more
than 200 years since John Marshall was appointed in 1801 at the
age of 45.
He could end up holding the lifetime seat for decades and
help shape the court and the American way of life on matters
from civil rights to voting rights to women’s rights.
Bush’s selection of Roberts came after weeks of tough
scrutiny that found public support for the nominee and no major
obstacles despite the concerns of a number of liberal groups.
Roberts’ record will be closely examined by Democrats on
the Judiciary Committee, who have vowed to question him during
his confirmation hearing about his judicial philosophy.
During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, Roberts worked as a
special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith at
the Justice Department in 1981-1982, and then in the White
House counsel’s office.
PAPER TRAIL
Recently released memos showed Roberts embraced the
conservative Reagan administration’s efforts to limit judicial
power and opposed a proposed equal rights amendment for women
and civil rights remedies such as busing school children.
As a Justice Department aide, Roberts advised O’Connor at
her own confirmation hearings in 1981 to avoid specific answers
about legal issues likely to come before the court, a tactic he
is expected to use to avoid creating any controversy.
Bush first nominated Roberts for the U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia. The Senate confirmed
Roberts in a voice vote on May 8, 2003.
While on the bench, Roberts has been involved in several
important rulings.
He was part of the three-judge panel that handed the Bush
administration a critical victory by ruling that the military
tribunals for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could
proceed.
The ruling was announced on July 15, the same day that
Roberts later disclosed he had been interviewed by Bush about
the Supreme Court vacancy.
Some senators plan to question Roberts about whether he had
a potential conflict of interest and should have removed
himself from the closely watched terrorism case which is now
pending before the Supreme Court.
Roberts argued before the Supreme Court as the principal
deputy solicitor general from 1989 to 1993, during the
presidency of Bush’s father.
In 1990, Roberts signed a brief that stated the first Bush
administration’s belief that the Supreme Court’s historic 1973
decision that legalized abortion should be overturned. But at
his 2003 confirmation hearings, Roberts described the 1973
decision as “settled law.”
Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1955, Roberts was raised in
Indiana. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard in
1976 and then graduated from Harvard Law School in 1979.
Roberts lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with his wife, Jane
Sullivan Roberts, and with their two adopted children. The
couple has a net worth of more than $5 million, Roberts said.