John G. Roberts

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John G. Roberts
Current Court Information:
Supreme Court of the United States
Title:   Chief Justice
Service:
Appointed by:   George W. Bush
Approval vote:   78-22
Active:   9/29/2005-Current
Chief:   9/29/2005-Current
Preceded by:   William Rehnquist
Past post:   District of Columbia Court of Appeals
Past term:   2003-2005
Personal History
Born:   1/27/1955
Home State:   Buffalo, NY
Bachelors:   Harvard College
Law School:   Harvard Law

Contents

John Glover Roberts, Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is the seventeenth and current Chief Justice of the United States. Generally considered to be a practitioner of judicial restraint, Roberts most often votes with the conservative wing of the Court. Prior to his appointment as a federal judge in 2003 and joining the Court in 2005, Roberts spent more than 20 years working in Washington, D.C. in the administrations of presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush between stints in private practice. He served as a law clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1979–1980 and as a law clerk for then-Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 1980 Term. He was Special Assistant to the Attorney General, United States Department of Justice from 1981–1982, Associate Counsel to President Ronald Reagan, White House Counsel’s Office from 1982–1986, and Principal Deputy Solicitor General, United States Department of Justice from 1989–1993. From 1986–1989 and 1993–2003, he practiced law in Washington, D.C. He was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President George W. Bush in 2003. President George W. Bush nominated him as Chief Justice of the United States, and he took his seat on September 29, 2005.[1]

Early Life

John Glover Roberts, Jr. was born in Buffalo, New York on January 27, 1955 to John Glover "Jack" Roberts (1928 - 2008) and the former Rosemary Podrasky (1929 - ). [2] His father was an electrical engineer and executive for Bethlehem Steel - where the younger John worked on the floor during summer holidays.[3] Roberts was raised as and continues to be a practicing Roman Catholic. He attended private schools as a child - ultimately graduating from La Lumiere, an all-boys Roman Catholic boarding school in LaPorte, Indiana, as class valedictorian in 1973.[4] Roberts was an academic standout and an active part of the school community where he served on the student council executive committee and the editorial board of the student newspaper. The Roberts family was not considered politically active but John's conservative views are believed to be consistent with the views of his upbringing.[5]

Harvard College and Law School

Roberts attended Harvard for both his undergraduate and law degrees. He graduated from Harvard College in 1976 after only three years and from Harvard Law School in 1979. At the college, Roberts studied history, wrote his thesis on British Liberalism in the Early 20th Century and graduated summa cum laude.[6] At the Law School, he served as managing editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude.

Roberts is the sixth justice on the current court to attend Harvard Law School. The other alumni justices are Anthony Kennedy '61, Antonin Scalia '60, David Souter '66, Stephen Breyer '64, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who attended HLS from 1956 to 1958 and ultimately received her degree from Columbia Law School. (Chief Justice William Rehnquist earned a master's degree from Harvard's Faculty of Arts & Sciences in 1950.) Throughout history, numerous Harvard Law School graduates and faculty members have served on the high court, including Joseph Story, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, William Brennan, Harry Blackmun and others.[7]

Law Clerk

After law school, Roberts served as a clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals from 1979 to 1980.

From 1980 to 1981, he clerked for then-Associate Justice William Rehnquist on the Supreme Court of the United States. During the 1980 to 1981 term, the Supreme Court ruled on a number of notable cases including:

Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980), in which the Court granted certiorari and held that a state may not pass a statute requiring the posting of religious materials in a public school for secular purposes and that this does in fact constitute of violation of the First Amendment regardless of intent.[8]

Fedorenko v. United States, 449 U.S. 490 (1981), in which the majority (Rehnquist included) held that the citizenship of a naturalized American must be revoked - and considered illegally obtained - in the case of a war criminal hiding in the United States.[9]

H.L. v. Matheson, 450 U.S. 398 (1981), in which the majority (Rehnquist joining) held that requiring parental notification before performing an abortion on a minor is not unconstitutional.[10]

Estelle v. Smith, 45 U.S. 454 (1981), in which the majority (Rehnquist concurring) held that statements taken in violation of the Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to counsel may not be admitted in a capital sentencing.[11]

Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477 (1981), in which the majority (Rehnquist concurring) held that once a suspect has invoked his/her Miranda rights, they cannot be waived after the fact for the purpose of acquiring a confession.[12]

Connecticut Board of Pardons v. Dumschat, 452 U.S. 458 (1981), in which the majority (Rehnquist joining) held that inmates serving life sentences have no rights to expect a commutation of their sentence beyond the right to seek commutation.[13]

California v. Pryscock, 453 U.S. 355 (1981), in which the Court granted certiorari and held that recitation of Miranda rights to suspects need not be a verbatim incantation of the language contained in the Miranda opinion to satisfy the findings of the Miranda decision.[14]

New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454 (1981), in which the majority (Rehnquist joining) held that evidence obtained as the result of an in plain sight search during a lawful traffic stop is admissible in court.[15]

Dames & Moore v. Regan, 453 U.S. 654 (1981), in which the majority (Rehnquist authoring the opinion) held that the President has the authority to freeze assets belonging to a foreign country while dealing with a foreign crisis.[16]

Widmar v. Vincent, 454 U.S. 263 (1981), in which the majority (Rehnquist joining) held that state regulation of speech should be content-neutral and that a state university may not limit a registered student group from meeting on university grounds under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.[17]

Executive Branch Service

Following his time as a clerk for Rehnquist, Roberts entered into the first of a number of Executive Branch appointments that saw him serve in the administrations of Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Reagan Administration

Roberts served as Special Assistant to U.S. Attorney General, William French Smith from 1981–1982. In that role, he advised the Attorney General, wrote speeches, and acted as the Attorney General's representative to other officials in the Executive Branch and state and local governments.

From 1982 - 1986, Roberts served as Associate Counsel to President Ronald Reagan White House Counsel’s Office under Fred F. Fielding. Fielding, who served as White House Counsel to presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.[18] was long believed to be "Deep Throat," the unnamed Washington Post source at the center of the Watergate scandal.[19] His duties in the White House included reviewing bills submitted to the President by the Congress, drafting and reviewing Executive Orders, and generally reviewing the full range of presidential activities for legal problems.[20]

George H.W. Bush Administration

Roberts served as Principal Deputy Solicitor General, United States Department of Justice from 1989–1993. As Principal Deputy Solicitor General, Chief Justice Roberts briefed and argued a variety of cases before the United States Supreme Court on behalf of the U.S. government.[20]

Private Practice

From 1986-1989, Roberts practiced law in Washington, D.C. as an associate at Hogan & Hartson. He made partner in 1988 while building a strong civil litigation practice focussed on appellate matters. Roberts would leave the firm in 1989 to serve as Principal Deputy Solicitor General, United States Department of Justice in the administration of President George H. W. Bush, but would return in 1993 to lead the firm's appellate practice group.[21]

Roberts argued his first case before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1989. As a court-appointed attorney, he successfully represented his client against the United States government in United States v. Halper, a Double Jeopardy case decided by a unanimous Court.[22]

Roberts would ultimately argue a total of 39 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, winning 25 of them.

Roberts was also part of the team of lawyers sent to Florida to advise Governor Jeb Bush during the 2000 presidential election recount in that state which would ultimately put the governor's brother George W. Bush in the White House.[23]

Circuit Court of Appeals Judge

From 2003 until he took his seat on the Supreme Court, Roberts served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. During his two years on the bench, Roberts would author 49 opinions, two of which elicited dissents from other judges, and would author three dissenting opinions.

Nomination and Confirmation

Roberts path to the federal bench took longer than anticipated by some. First appointed by President George H. W. Bush to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1992. His appointment was never taken up for a vote and he returned to private practice after President Bush lost the 1992 presidential election to President Bill Clinton.

Roberts was next appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President George W. Bush in May 2001 - the same month U.S. Senator James Jeffords (VT) would leave the Republican Party and hand control of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats. Senator Patrick Leahy (also of Vermont) would chair the Senate Judiciary Committee for the next 19 months and refused Roberts a confirmation hearing. [24]

Roberts would get his hearing after being reappointed by President Bush in January of 2003, after the Republicans regained control of the Senate, and Judge Roberts was confirmed unanimously on May 8, 2003.

Summary of Judgeship and Legal Opinions

Roberts time as an appellate judge generally found his rulings to be consistent with conservative philosophies. Yet, he was considered a highly respected and fair jurist. Of his 49 opinions, only two garnered dissenting opinions. During his tenure, Roberts offered the following rulings on notable cases:

Hedgepeth v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, 386 F3d 1148, in which the court (Roberts filing the Opinion) held that a 12-year-old girl's Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights were not violated by her arrest and juvenile detention for violating a "zero tolerance" law against eating or drinking in a Metrorail station.

"No one is very happy about the events that led to this litigation. A twelve-year-old girl was arrested, searched, and handcuffed. Her shoelaces were removed, and she was transported in the windowless rear compartment of a police vehicle to a juvenile processing center, where she was booked, fingerprinted, and detained until released to her mother some three hours later — all for eating a single french fry in a Metrorail station. The child was frightened, embarrassed, and crying throughout the ordeal. The district court described the policies that led to her arrest as "foolish," and indeed the policies were changed after those responsible endured the sort of publicity reserved for adults who make young girls cry. The question before us, however, is not whether these policies were a bad idea, but whether they violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution. Like the district court, we conclude that they did not, and accordingly we affirm." [25]

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006), in which the Supreme Court of the United States reversed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit regarding military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Roberts recused himself as Chief Justice from this case as he had been part of a unanimous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit which held that enemy combatants could be subjected to military tribunals upon being declared enemy combatants. Roberts and the appellate court held that the War on Terror is not a declared war between two countries who are signatories of the Geneva Conventions nor the Uniform Code of Military Justice. [26]

Rancho Viejo, LLC v. Norton, 323 F3d 1062, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (Roberts dissenting) refused to hear an appeal on behalf of a developer whose housing project was halted through the Endangered Species Act. Roberts dissent became a source of controversy during his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court of the United States when environmental groups brought attention to his dissenting opinion - which interestingly does not constitute precedent and therefore had no legal standing. Roberts famously claimed "The panel's approach in this case leads to the result that regulating the taking of a hapless toad that, for reasons of its own, lives its entire life in California constitutes regulating "Commerce ... among the several States." U.S. CONST. art. I, § 8, cl. 3." in his dissent.[27]

U.S. Supreme Court

Nomination and confirmation

On July 19, 2005, President Bush nominated Roberts to the Supreme Court to fill a vacancy that would be left by the announced retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Roberts was the first Supreme Court nominee since Stephen Breyer in 1994.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist died on September 3, 2005 while Roberts' confirmation was still pending before the Senate. Shortly thereafter, on September 6, Bush withdrew Roberts's nomination as O'Connor's successor and announced Roberts' new nomination to the position of Chief Justice. Bush asked the Senate to expedite Roberts' confirmation hearings in order to fill the vacancy by the beginning of the Supreme Court's session in early October.

On September 22 the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Roberts' nomination by a vote of 13-5, with Senators Ted Kennedy, Richard Durbin, Charles Schumer, Joe Biden and Dianne Feinstein casting the dissenting votes. Roberts was confirmed by the full Senate on September 29, passing by a margin of 78-22.

Notable rulings

Parents v. Seattle School District

In June, 2007, Chief Justice Roberts authored the plurality opinion in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1.

At issue was whether it was constitutionally permissible for a public school district, and particularly those that had not operated segregated schools in the past, to (1) classify students by race and (2) rely upon such racial classifications in making school assignments.

The school districts involved voluntarily adopted student assignment plans that relied upon race to determine which public schools certain children may attend. The Seattle school district classified children as white or nonwhite, and the Jefferson County (Louisvile, KY) school district as black or “other.” In Seattle, this racial classification was used to allocate slots in oversubscribed high schools. In Jefferson County, it was used to make certain elementary school assignments and to rule on transfer requests. In each case, the school districts relied upon an individual student's race in assigning that student to a particular school, so that the racial balance at the school fell within a predetermined range based on the racial composition of the school district as a whole. Parents of students denied assignment to particular schools under these plans solely because of their race brought suit, contending that allocating children to different public schools on the basis of race violated the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection.

Majority opinion

In writing for the plurality, Chief Justice Roberts took the following positions:

"Here the racial balance the districts seek is a defined range set solely by reference to the demographics of the respective school districts. This working backward to achieve a particular type of racial balance, rather than working forward from some demonstration of the level of diversity that provides the purported benefits, is a fatal flaw under our existing precedent."

Roberts referenced the following cases in order to affirm his position:

  • Freeman, 503 U.S.
  • Richmond v. J.A. Croson, Co.
  • Bakke, 438 U.S.

Interpretation

Accepting racial balancing as a compelling state interest would justify the imposition of racial proportionality throughout American society, contrary to our repeated recognition that “[a]t the heart of the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection lies the simple command that the Government must treat citizens as individuals, not as simply components of a racial, religious, sexual or national class." as was stated in Miller v. Johnson.

  • The principle that racial balancing is not permitted is one of substance, not semantics. Racial balancing is not transformed from “patently unconstitutional” to a compelling state interest simply by relabeling it “racial diversity.”

Simply because the school districts may seek a worthy goal does not mean they are free to discriminate on the basis of race to achieve it, or that their racial classifications should be subject to less exacting scrutiny.

References


Wikipedia has an article on
  1. ↑ Biographies of the current U.S. Supreme Court justices
  2. ↑ Ancestry of John G. Roberts as compiled by William Addams Reitwiesner
  3. ↑ John Roberts on NNDB
  4. ↑ Notable alumni of La Lumiere School
  5. ↑ New York Times, "Court Nominee's Life Is Rooted in Faith and Respect for Law", July 21, 2005
  6. ↑ The Harvard Crimson, "Two alums may be tapped for court", July 8, 2005
  7. ↑ Harvard Law
  8. ↑ Stone v. Graham
  9. ↑ Fedorenko v. United States
  10. ↑ H.L. v. Matheson
  11. ↑ Estelle v. Smith
  12. ↑ Edwards v. Arizona
  13. ↑ Connecticut Board of Pardons v. Dumschat
  14. ↑ California v. Pryscock
  15. ↑ New York v. Belton
  16. ↑ Dames & Moore v. Regan
  17. ↑ Widmar v. Vincent
  18. ↑ Time, "Bush Picks a Replacement for Harriet Miers", January 8, 2007
  19. ↑ Slate, "Was Fred Fielding Deep Throat?", April 28, 2003
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.
  21. ↑ Former Hogan & Hartson Partner John G. Roberts, Jr. Confirmed as Chief Justice of the United States
  22. ↑ United States v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435 (1989)
  23. ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Confirmation Path May Run Through Florida", July 21, 2005
  24. ↑ Washington Times "Pat Leahy, Judiciary Committee Chairman?" October 16, 2006
  25. ↑ Hedgepeth v Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
  26. ↑ Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
  27. ↑ Rancho Viejo Llc v. A Norton

Portions of this article have been taken and edited from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Copyright Notice can be found here.

Federal judicial offices
Preceded by:
James Buckley 		DC Circuit Court of Appeals
2003–2005 		Succeeded by:
NA
Preceded by:
William Rehnquist 		Supreme Court
2005–present 		Succeeded by:
NA
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