Looks like Roberts was a good pick by Bush; not to everyone's taste ideologically, of course, but doing a good job according to a nonpartisan media source:
Roberts, at Ease in New Role, Puts Stamp on U.S. Supreme Court
May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Chief Justice John Roberts, who hasn't had time to put his ideological imprint on the U.S. Supreme Court, is already giving it his personal stamp.
Seven months into the job, Roberts looks very much at home on a court where he argued 39 cases as a Washington lawyer. He is embracing his role as the public face of the nation's judiciary while drawing accolades from justices and litigants alike for his smooth handling of the court's business.
``I can easily think of at least 39 other occasions in which I was a lot more nervous, so that might help a little bit,'' Roberts said in a brief interview in his office last week.
Some lawyers say Roberts's leadership has improved the tone of hearings and might even be a reason for an unusual string of unanimous rulings. If so, those achievements are especially notable given that Roberts, 51, is the youngest chief justice in two centuries and was born after all eight of his colleagues, a group that includes 86-year-old John Paul Stevens.
``He sure looks like he was born to do it,'' said Theodore Olson, a former U.S. solicitor general and a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington. ``He does it with a certain genuine comfort in that job, which is quite remarkable.''
Roberts so far has provided only glimpses of how he might shape the court substantively, and he may spark more controversy as he rules in additional cases. He aligned himself with the court's conservatives in January rulings involving the death penalty and assisted suicide.
Final Weeks
The court, which is scheduled to announce more opinions today, is entering the final weeks of its nine-month term and will soon rule in cases involving the environment, voting rights, campaign finance and presidential power.
Roberts's comfort is nowhere more evident than in the courtroom, where he is an active questioner and the occasional source of a well-timed one-liner. When a ceiling light bulb exploded with a bang during a November argument, he observed, ``It's a trick they play on new chief justices all the time.''
Some lawyers who practice before the court say the atmosphere is more relaxed under Roberts's watch than it was under his predecessor, William Rehnquist, even if the questions are just as pointed.
``He certainly leads by example when he asks a very hard question with a genial and curious manner,'' said David Frederick, a Washington lawyer with Kellogg Huber Hansen Todd & Evans, who argued four cases before Roberts and the court during the term.
Tenacious Questioner
To be sure, Roberts can be a tenacious questioner. In a voting rights case in March, he peppered a lawyer for a Mexican- American group with 16 questions in 20 minutes, repeatedly --and unsuccessfully -- asking her to specify the percentage of Hispanic voters she would find acceptable in a congressional district in Texas.
``He can be very, very aggressive at times,'' said Elliot Mincberg, legal director of People For the American Way, a Washington advocacy group that opposed Roberts's confirmation. ``How that style works out and how that will affect his fellow justices really remains to be seen.''
Still, his years as an appellate lawyer mean Roberts can identify with the attorneys who appear before the court. Most of his 39 arguments came in an era when the justices were quick to interrupt attorneys, cutting off their arguments, said Carter G. Phillips, a Washington lawyer with Sidley Austin.
``He may very well have said to his colleagues, somewhere along the line, something about that experience and how frustrating it can be from the advocate's point of view,'' said Phillips, who argued six cases during Roberts's first term.
Unanimous Decisions
Roberts in some ways is still making the transition from advocate to justice. Phillips said Roberts recently confided that ``it startled him how much the justices leave the bench and talk about the performance of the lawyers.''
Roberts is proving popular with the other members of the court, says former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger, a lawyer at O'Melveny & Myers in Washington. Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who served with Roberts for four months, lauded him in Time magazine for ``his sense of humor and articulate nature and calm demeanor.''
Of the 38 cases resolved so far by signed opinion, 25 came without dissent. Olson speculates Roberts might be letting the justices work through their disagreements at their weekly conferences, which under Rehnquist had become truncated affairs.
``Maybe people are getting things off their chest at conference, and that's producing more unanimous decisions,'' Olson said.
Public Role
Roberts declined to discuss the conferences during the interview, saying he wanted to preserve the ``sanctity'' of those sessions, which only the nine justices attend.
The new chief justice has made a point of venturing beyond the Supreme Court's marble walls, taking a more public role than did Rehnquist. When Roberts last month selected James Duff to run the federal court system's administrative office, the chief justice made the announcement in the atrium of the office's headquarters before hundreds of judiciary employees.
``I want those folks to understand that I don't view them as simply another government agency,'' Roberts said in the interview. ``I view them as the spokespeople for the judiciary in Washington. And that's why I went over there and did that.''
Other outings are less conspicuous. As he has for years, Roberts attends meetings of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, a social and professional organization for Washington lawyers. He has put in frequent appearances at receptions, including the solicitor general's holiday party in December. He travels at least occasionally via the Metro, the Washington subway system.
The Common Touch
``There's a wonderful air of normality about the chief justice as he goes about his business,'' Dellinger said.
That everyman quality was evident in November at a wake for William B. Bryant, the first black chief judge of the federal district court in Washington.
When Roberts arrived at Howard University Law School, Dean Kurt Schmoke offered to let the chief justice bypass the line of 100 or so people who were waiting to view the casket and see Bryant's family. Roberts instead walked to the back of the line to wait his turn.
``The message he communicated to me was, `I don't want any special privileges,''' Schmoke said. ``He was trying a great deal not to draw attention to himself.'' |
