Background Information of SCOTUS Nominee John Roberts

Personal notes
• Full name: John Glover Roberts Jr.
• Born January 27, 1955, in Buffalo, New York
• Currently resides in suburbs of Washington, D.C.
• Religion: Roman Catholic
Family
• Current marital status: Married
• Spouse: Jane Marie Sullivan
• Children: Josephine and Jack
• Parents: Jack Roberts Sr. and Rosemary Roberts
Education
• Harvard Law School, J.D., 1979; magna cum laude (managing editor of The Harvard Law Review)
• Harvard College, A.B., 1976; summa cum laude (history major)
Professional career
• 1979-80: Law clerk for Circuit Judge Henry Friendly
• 1980-81: Law clerk for Associate Justice William Rehnquist
• 1981-82: Special assistant to the attorney general
• 1982-86: Associate counsel to the president
• 1986-89, 1993-03: Partner/head of appellate division, Hogan & Hartson
• 1989-93: Principal deputy solicitor general
• 2003-Present: U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit
Federal judicial history
• First nominated for his current position on the D.C. appellate court in 1992 by former President Bush but was never brought to a Senate vote
• Previously nominated for same post in May 2001, but nomination stalled after Democrats took control of Senate in June 2001
• Nominated by George W. Bush on January 7, 2003, to his current seat, which was vacated by James L. Buckley; confirmed by the Senate on May 8, 2003, and received commission on June 2, 2003
Notable cases
As deputy U.S. solicitor general on behalf of the George H.W. Bush administration:
• Rust v. Sullivan (1990): About Roe v. Wade, he argued that "we continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled."
As a federal judge:
• Hedgepeth v. WMATA (2004): Also known as the "French fry" case. Roberts upheld the arrest and detention of a 12-year-old girl who ate a French fry inside a D.C. subway station.
As an attorney:
• United States v. Microsoft (2001): Represented 18 states and the District of Columbia in the Microsoft antitrust case
• Smith & Botelho v. Doe (2002): Defended Alaska's version of "Megan's Law," which allowed publicizing the names of sex offenders to members of the general community.

Source: CNN

Official text of July 19, 2005 Announcement by President Bush with Remarks by US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts.

U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Senate Judiciary Committee News

Commentary and analysis on the Law Professor Blogs Network:

Professor Douglas Berman (OSU), editor of Sentencing Law & Policy

• Robert's round-up
• Pondering Judge Robert's mold
• Judge Roberts' DC Circuit sentencing opinions
• Is Judge Roberts personally against capital punishment?
• What might Justice John Roberts mean for sentence jurisprudence?

Additional blog commentary and analysis:

• The Supreme Court Nomination Blog
• The National Women's Law Center's Nomination Watch
• The Republican National Lawyers Association's Judicial Confirmation Blog
• Redstate.org's Confirm Them
• Nomination Nation