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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nikole Wollerstein who wrote (692849)	7/19/2005 10:58:59 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

Conservative Republican Picked for US Top Court By REUTERS Filed at 10:29 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In picking John Roberts for the U.S. Supreme Court, President Bush turned to a solidly conservative Republican who was regarded as one of the top appellate lawyers to argue at the high court before he became a judge. The 50-year-old Roberts, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, would replace departing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who often cast the decisive vote on the nine-member court, which has been closely divided between conservative and liberal factions. Roberts is widely known and admired by conservative Washington legal insiders, having served in the Republican administrations of former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Before becoming a federal appeals court judge in 2003, Roberts had argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court in private practice or as a government lawyer. He was nominated by Bush for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is considered the nation's second most influential court after the Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed Roberts in a voice vote on May 8, 2003. While on the bench, Roberts has been involved in some noteworthy cases. He was part of the three-judge panel that handed the Bush administration a critical victory last Friday by ruling that the military tribunals for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could proceed. In another opinion, Roberts voted to uphold the arrest and detention of a 12-year-old girl for eating french fries on a subway train, though he added, ``No one is very happy about the events that led to this litigation.'' ABORTION DECISION 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. The first President Bush nominated Roberts to a seat on the appeals court in Washington, but Democrats controlled the Senate then and never gave him a vote apparently because of complaints about his record as deputy solicitor general. Supporters praised Roberts for his record in arguing cases before the high court. ``Before he was appointed to the bench, he established himself as the best Supreme Court advocate of his generation,'' said lawyer Gregory Garre, who worked with Roberts at the Hogan & Hartson law firm in the 1990s. But critics took a different view. ``At first blush, John Roberts may not appear to be an ultra-right judicial activist, but his approach to issues of protecting the rights and freedoms of individual Americans are, at best, unclear and, in some instances, deeply troubling,'' said Wade Henderson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. Born in Buffalo, New York, in 1955, Roberts was raised in Indiana. He graduated from Harvard University in 1976 and from Harvard Law School in 1979. Roberts served as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist from 1980-1981. 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 during Reagan's presidency. Roberts lives near Washington in suburban Maryland with his wife Jane Sullivan Roberts and two children.

To: Nikole Wollerstein who wrote (692849)	7/19/2005 11:14:23 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

Reaction: Jeff Mazzella From Jeff Mazzella, Center for Individual Freedom “Judge Roberts is an outstanding nominee. “Judge Roberts is a well-qualified, mainstream choice who will stand up for the Constitution and reject the temptation to legislate from the bench. He has a clear record demonstrating that he understands that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, not an evolving set of flexible guidelines. “With Judge Roberts’s nomination, President Bush has kept his campaign promise to select a Supreme Court justice who will put the Constitution first. “Already, liberals and their special interest puppet masters are promising a war. But instead of making the confirmation process a war, Senators should make sure that the process is fair. And it must include a simple up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. “Most important, the nominee deserves to be treated with the dignity and respect befitting a Supreme Court justice. Senators should stop the name-calling, insults and smears that lately have become too common in the nomination process. “Senators who choose to make the confirmation process a forum for attacks will demonstrate that they are the ones who are out of the mainstream.”