Here’s a look at the life of John Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States.
Personal:
Birth date: January 27, 1955
Birth place: Buffalo, New York
Birth name: John Glover Roberts Jr.
Father: John Glover Roberts Sr., steel company executive
Mother: Rosemary (Podrasky) Roberts
Marriage: Jane (Sullivan) Roberts (July 27, 1996-present)
Children: Adopted with Jane Roberts: John and Josephine
Education: Harvard University, A.B., 1976; Harvard Law School, J.D., 1979
Religion: Roman Catholic
Other Facts:
He grew up in Long Beach, Indiana.
As an attorney for the government and in private practice, he argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court and won 25 of them.
He is a member of the American Law Institute, and a member of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution.
Roberts is the youngest chief justice since John Marshall in 1801.
Timeline:
1979-1980 – Clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly, US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
1980-1981- Clerk for Associate Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist.
1981-1982 – Special assistant to US Attorney General William French Smith.
1982-1986 – Associate Counsel to President Ronald Reagan.
1986-1989 – Partner and head of the appellate division at Hogan & Hartson, Washington, DC.
1989 – Roberts argues his first case before the Supreme Court:United States v. Halper.
1989-1993 – Principal Deputy Solicitor General for the US government.
1992 – Is nominated by President George H. W. Bush to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The nomination is never acted upon by the Senate.
1993-2003 – Returns to Hogan & Hartson.
2001 – Roberts represents 18 states and the District of Columbia in the appeal to the Microsoft antitrust case, U.S. v. Microsoft.
May 2001 – Is nominated by President George W. Bush to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The vote stalls when the Democrats take control of the Senate in June 2001.
November 13, 2002 – Roberts defends Megan’s Law before the Supreme Court. The law creates a registry for sex offenders that can be searched online.
May 8, 2003 – The Senate unanimously votes to confirm his appointment to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
September 5, 2005 – Is nominated by George W. Bush to be Chief Justice of the United States following the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist.
September 12-15, 2005 – Senate confirmation hearings take place.
September 29, 2005 – The Senate votes 78-22 to confirm Roberts.
January 21, 2009 – Re-administers the oath of office to President Barack Obama one day after the official swearing-in ceremony, during which Roberts misplaces a word in the oath and causes Obama to stumble over the recitation.
June 28, 2012 – In National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius, Roberts casts the deciding vote, 5-4, and writes the majority opinion in favor of the Affordable Care Act.
June 25, 2013 – The court strikes down portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,with Roberts writing in the majority opinion that “our country has changed,” suggesting that many of the issues addressed by the law have been resolved.
June 25, 2015 – Roberts writes the court’s majority decision in King v. Burwell, saving the Affordable Care Act by authorizing federal tax credits for eligible Americans living not only in states with their own exchanges but also in the 34 states with federal marketplaces.
June 26, 2015 – Roberts writes a dissentagainst the court’s ruling that legalizes same-sex marriage nationwide.
December 31, 2017 – Roberts announces, in his year-end report on the state of the judiciary, that an evaluation of how the judicial branch handles allegations of sexual harassment will take place in 2018. Roberts says recent events “have illuminated the depth of the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace” and made clear that the “judicial branch is not immune.”
November 21, 2018 – Roberts issues a statement in response to President Donald Trump criticizing District Court Judge Jon Tigar as an “Obama judge.” Roberts said, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
June 26, 2018 – Roberts writes the majority opinion upholding President Trump’s travel ban stating, “The Proclamation is squarely within the scope of Presidential authority.”
