John Roberts

John Glover Roberts Jr is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. He has been described as having a moderate conservative judicial philosophy though is primarily an institutionalist. He has shown a willingness to work with the Supreme Court's liberal bloc, and has been regarded as a swing vote on the Court, sitting slightly to the left of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Roberts grew up in Northwestern Indiana and was educated in a series of Catholic schools. He studied history at Harvard University and then attended Harvard Law School, where he was managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. He served as a law clerk for Circuit Judge Henry Friendly and Justice William Rehnquist before taking a position in the attorney general's office during the Reagan Administration. He went on to serve the Reagan Administration and the George H. W. Bush Administration in the Department of Justice and the Office of the White House Counsel, during which he was nominated by George H. W. Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but no vote on his nomination was held. Roberts then spent 14 years in private law practice. During this time, he argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court. Notably, he represented 19 states in United States v. Microsoft Corp.

Roberts became a federal judge in 2003, when President George W. Bush appointed him to the District of Columbia Circuit. During his two-year tenure on the D.C. Circuit, Roberts authored 49 opinions, eliciting two dissents from other judges, and authoring three dissents of his own. In 2005, Bush nominated Roberts to the Supreme Court, initially to be an associate justice to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Chief Justice William Rehnquist died shortly afterward, however, before Roberts's Senate confirmation hearings had begun. Bush then withdrew Roberts's nomination and instead nominated him to become Chief Justice, choosing Samuel Alito to replace O'Connor.

Roberts has authored the majority opinion in many important cases, including decisions relating to elections (Shelby County v. Holder, Rucho v. Common Cause, Allen v. Milligan, Moore v. Harper), federal agencies (Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, West Virginia v. EPA, Biden v. Nebraska), presidential power (Medellín v. Texas, Trump v. Hawaii, Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP, Trump v. Vance), the Affordable Care Act (National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, King v. Burwell), and race-based college admissions (Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina).

Early legal career:

After graduating from law school, Roberts was a law clerk for Judge Henry Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1979 to 1980, then for Justice (later Chief Justice in 1986) William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1980 to 1981.

Following his clerkships, Roberts began working for the U.S. government in the Administration of President Ronald Reagan, first from 1981 to 1982 as a special assistant to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith, then from 1982 to 1986 as an associate with the White House Counsel. He then entered private practice in Washington, D.C., as an associate at the law firm of Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells) and worked in the field of corporate law.

In 1989, Roberts joined the Administration of president George H. W. Bush as Principal Deputy Solicitor General. He served as the acting solicitor general for the case of Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC when the solicitor general, Ken Starr, had a conflict of interest. In the case, Roberts argued against policies of the FCC intended to increase minority ownership of broadcast licenses, arguing that the racial preferences were unconstitutional. Roberts's decision to argue that a federal agency's policy was unconstitutional surprised many lawyers within the Solicitor General's office.In 1992, Bush nominated Roberts to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but no Senate vote was held, and Roberts's nomination expired at the end of the 102nd Congress.

Following Bush's defeat by Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential election, Roberts left government service and returned to Hogan & Hartson as a partner. He became the head of the firm's appellate practice, and also became an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. During this time, Roberts argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court, prevailing in 25 of them. He represented 19 states in United States v. Microsoft. Those cases include:

During this time he worked pro bono for gay rights advocates, reviewing filings and preparing arguments for the 1996 Supreme Court case Romer v. Evans, which was described in 2005 as "the movement's most important legal victory". Roberts's involvement with the case was minimal, as he later stated that he had been involved for less than ten hours in preparing oral arguments. He also argued on behalf of the homeless, in a case which became one of Roberts's "few appellate losses."[further explanation needed] He also represented, pro bono, a man who was sentenced to death for killing eight people in Florida.

During the late 1990s, while working for Hogan & Hartson, Roberts served as a member of the steering committee of the Washington, D.C., chapter of the conservative Federalist Society (although Roberts says he has never been a Federalist Society member). In 2000, Roberts advised Jeb Bush, then governor of Florida, concerning Bush's actions in the Florida election recount during the presidential election