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Roberts Confirmed by Senate.
By Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writer
The Senate confirmed John Glover Roberts Jr. as chief justice of the
United States, replacing the late William H. Rehnquist, the mentor for
whom he clerked. The vote was 78-22.
Justice John Paul Stevens, the senior associate justice who has been
performing the chief justice's duties since Rehnquist died, will swear
in Roberts at 3:00 P.M. today at the White House. Roberts will
participate on Monday -- the first Monday in October -- in a Supreme
Court investiture ceremony as the justices begin their new term.
The next step will be the nomination of an
associate justice, perhaps within the next day or two, to replace the
retiring Sandra Day O'Connor. Since that appointee will replace a
centrist justice rather than a conservative, many observers expect a
sharper battle.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
told reporters after the confirmation, "I believe that there's a very
decisive bipartisan flavor to this vote." He said, "Judge Roberts --
soon to be Chief Justice Roberts -- got half of the Democrats and
Senator Jeffords," an independent. "And to come away with 78 votes,
considering where the Senate was in such contentious straits earlier
this year, I think is really remarkable."
Specter added, "Chief Justice Roberts has great potential for the future
to bring a consensus to the court, to have a better recognition of
congressional authority and, as he put it, to understand the
Constitution responding to the changes in the ages and responding to
societal conditions."
Roberts, 50, will be the youngest person in the exalted position of
chief justice since John Marshall, an appointee of President John Adams.
Marshall took office in 1801 at the age of 46.
Roberts, who also becomes the official head of the federal judiciary
itself, is 17th in a line that includes such historic figures as John
Jay, Marshall, Roger Brooke Taney, Charles Evans Hughes, Harlan Fiske
Stone and Earl Warren.
He represents a new generation at the court as well, being the first
member born after Brown v. Board of Education , the 1954 decision that
declared unconstitutional separate-but-equal schools. He received his
legal training at Harvard Law School after the passing of the activist
era of the Warren court and was present at the creation of the
administration of Ronald Reagan, in a Justice Department that strived
mightily to reverse much of the Warren court's legacy.
Historically, however, an appointee's past has provided little or no
guidance to his or her performance on the court, thanks in part to the
influence of colleagues, in part to the independence conferred by a life
term and in part to a tendency of justices to compromise, lest they
dwell in the margins of the law, unable to build majorities or write
opinions of consequence.
Justice Hugo Black, a former Ku Klux Klan member appointed by President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, became a champion of civil rights and voted
to desegregate the nation's schools. In 1940, in Chambers v. Florida ,
reversing the death sentences imposed upon six black tenant farmers as a
result of coerced confessions, Black wrote: "No higher duty, no more
solemn responsibility rests upon this court than that of translating
into living law and maintaining this constitutional shield deliberately
planned and inscribed for the benefit of every human being subject to
our Constitution -- of whatever race, creed or persuasion."
President Dwight D. Eisenhower commented that the two great mistakes of
his presidency were the appointments of Chief Justice Earl Warren and
Justice William J. Brennan Jr., who together helped lead the court into
what scholars consider its most "activist" era.
President Richard Nixon appointed Harry Blackmun, the author of Roe v.
Wade in 1973 who ultimately abandoned Nixon's "hard line" views on
criminal law, including the death penalty.
Roberts' choice of Stevens to administer his oath follows the tradition
of Warren, who also replaced a chief justice who had passed away, Fred
Vinson. Warren asked senior associate Justice Black and the court clerk
to handle the oaths, one at the White House and one at the court, in
1953.
Roberts's first term will include cases touching on some of the most
divisive issues of the times, including assisted suicide, restrictions
on abortion, campaign finance and the powers of the U.S. government in
virtually every field of regulation on the books.
By modern standards, Roberts's confirmation process went smoothly. A
number of Democrats opposed him largely on the basis of memos he
produced while an attorney in the Republican administrations of Reagan
and George H.W. Bush that caused them to question his positions on civil
rights and privacy issues, including the right to abortion.
Still, he was approved by a 13-5 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee,
with some Democrats saying he was the best they could get from a
conservative president whose ideal justices are Antonin Scalia and
Clarence Thomas.
Source: Washington Post
Thursday, September 29, 2005; 12:15 PM
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