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John Roberts, U.S. chief justice nominee

Posted on: Monday, 12 September 2005, 11:55 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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