Washington D.C., Jul 20, 2005 / 22:00 pm
With President Bush’s Tuesday nomination of Judge John Roberts to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor--historically seen as a swing voter on life and religious freedom issues--on the Supreme Court, people on all sides of the culture wars are looking to see what kind of judge the potential 109th justice will be.
The 50-year old Judge Roberts, who is married with two children, is a practicing Catholic and a 1979 graduate of Harvard Law School. Following law school, from which he graduated magna cum laude, Roberts clerked for well-respected Judge Henry Friendly on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and also Justice William Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Roberts also served for some time in the Regan administration, particularly as Associate White House Counsel, and from 1989-93, served as Principal Deputy Solicitor General--the government’s second highest ranking lawyer before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Having argued some 39 cases before the Supreme Court in his government practice and as a partner with the firm, Hogan and Hartson, Roberts has been described by various law journals as “one of [the Supreme Court’s] finest practitioners,” and “one of the top appellate lawyers of his generation.”