Bush nominates conservative to US Supreme Court
US President George Bush named federal appeals court judge John Roberts for a seat on the Supreme Court, delighting Republicans while unsettling some Democrats with the selection of a young jurist with impeccable conservative credentials.
“John Roberts has devoted his entire professional life to the cause of justice,” Bush said in a televised announcement at the White House. He “is widely admired for his intellect his sound judgment and his personal decency”, Bush said.
If confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, the 50-year-old Roberts would succeed on the nine-member court retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who has long been a swing vote on a court divided narrowly on issues such as abortion, states’ rights and the death penalty.
Roberts stood at Bush’s side as the president heaped praise on him.
The president called him “one of the finest legal minds in the country” and said he had recently spoken with Senate leaders of both parties who told him they “share my goal” of confirmation proceedings conducted with dignity and fairness.
The selection of a rock-solid conservative could trigger a tumultuous battle over the direction of the nation’s highest court.
Roberts has been on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since June 2003 after being put in that seat by Bush.
In making his first nomination to the court, Bush had an opportunity to expand his conservative agenda and extend it past his presidency. Justices serve until they retire or die.
The court is the third branch of the US government and decides on many contentious social issues that divide Americans.
Roberts’ nomination will have to be confirmed by the Senate, and activists across the US political spectrum have been gearing up for a fight. Social conservatives, Bush’s core supporters, want the president to choose a justice who will push the court to the right on abortion and other such issues.
Democrats would oppose any judge they see as too conservative, as they probably will judge Roberts. Although Democrats are in the minority, Senate rules have allowed them to block several of Bush’s nominees for lower judicial positions.
Advocacy groups on the right say that Roberts, a 50-year-old native of Buffalo, New York, is a bright judge with strong conservative credentials he burnished in the administrations of the current president’s father, and Ronald Reagan.
While he has been a federal judge for just a little more than two years, legal experts say that whatever experience he lacks on the bench will be offset by his many years arguing cases before the Supreme Court.
Liberal groups, however, say Roberts has taken positions in cases involving free speech and religious liberty that would endanger those rights if made the law of the land by the Supreme Court.
While he lacks national name recognition, Roberts is a Washington insider who has worked over the years at the White House, Justice Department and in private practice.
In the Reagan administration, Roberts was special assistant to the attorney general and associate counsel to the president. Between 1989 and 1993, he was principal deputy solicitor general, the US government’s second-highest lawyer, who argues cases before the US Supreme Court.
Roberts’ nomination to the appellate court attracted support from both sites of the ideological spectrum. Some 126 members of the District of Columbia Bar, including officials of the administration of former President Bill Clinton, signed a letter urging his confirmation.
The letter said Roberts was one of the “very best and most highly respected appellate lawyers in the nation” and that his reputation as a “brilliant writer and oral advocate” was well deserved.
“He has been a judge for only two years and authored about 40 opinions, only three of which have drawn any dissent,” said Wendy Long, a lawyer representing the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network.
She said his record appears to suit Bush’s desire to nominate a judge who will apply the law, as written, and leave policy decisions to the elected branches of government.
