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The law firm who is handling our patent applications is also the former employer of our newly nominated supreme court justice, John Roberts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Roberts_Jr.

John Glover Roberts, Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American attorney, and jurist. He is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and, if confirmed by the United States Senate, will become an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

On July 19, 2005, Roberts was nominated by President George W. Bush to replace Sandra Day O'Connor, who advised Bush on July 1 that she would retire from her position as an Associate Justice upon the confirmation of her successor.

Roberts lives in Bethesda, Maryland, and is the first Supreme Court nominee since Stephen Breyer in 1994. He is a practicing Catholic. He has three sisters—Kathy, Peggy and Barbara—and is the second oldest of his siblings. He and his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, have two adopted children, Jack and Josie (the latter is a year older than the former). Jane is a past vice-president of Feminists for Life, a pro-life feminist group.

Contents [hide]
1 Life and career
2 Notable Arguments on Behalf of Clients
2.1 As Deputy Solicitor General
2.2 Private Law Practice
3 Judicial Opinions
3.1 During a Confirmation Hearing
3.2 Opinions as Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals
4 Sources



[edit]
Life and career
Roberts was born in Buffalo, New York, to Jack and Rosemary Roberts. His father was an executive at Bethlehem Steel. Roberts's family moved to Long Beach, Indiana, an affluent town on the coast of Lake Michigan, when Roberts was in second grade.

He graduated first in the class of 1973 from La Lumiere, a small Catholic boarding school near LaPorte, Indiana. He studied six years of Latin and some French and was known for his devotion to his studies. He was co-captain of the football team and described himself as a "slow-footed halfback". He also wrestled, was co-editor of the school paper, served on the athletic council and served on the Executive Committee of the Student Council. Other activities included choral and drama.

He graduated summa ### laude from Harvard College (in three years), with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976 and received his law degree magna ### laude from Harvard Law School (where he was managing editor of the Harvard Law Review) in 1979.

After graduation, Roberts became a law clerk for Henry Friendly on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and held this post until the following year. From 1980 to 1981, he was a law clerk to then-Associate Justice William Rehnquist on the Supreme Court.

From 1981 to 1982, Roberts was a Special Assistant to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith, under President Ronald Reagan—at the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1982, Roberts became the Associate Counsel to the President under President Reagan's Counsel, Fred Fielding, and held this post until 1986.

Roberts entered private practice in 1986 as an associate at the Washington, D.C.-based Hogan & Hartson law firm, but left to serve under President George H. W. Bush in the Department of Justice from 1989 to 1993 as Deputy Solicitor General. In this capacity, he argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court, winning 25.


1976 Harvard University yearbook photo of Roberts.In 1992, Bush nominated Roberts to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but he was not confirmed; no Senate vote was held. Roberts returned to Hogan & Hartson as a partner in 1993 after Bush was defeated by Bill Clinton in the 1992 presidential election, and became the head of the firm's appellate practice.

Hogan & Hartson advised the George W. Bush campaign during the Florida election recount (see Bush v. Gore).

Roberts was nominated to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia by President George W. Bush on May 9, 2001, but his nomination – along with 29 others – failed to make it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee following prolonged partisan wrangling. He was renominated on January 7, 2003, to replace James L. Buckley. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate by voice vote on May 8 and received his commission on June 2, 2003. Some Democrats, however, had objected to Roberts's nomination; during the nomination hearing, Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts expressed concern and Senator Charles Schumer of New York criticized Roberts for declining to cite court rulings with which he disagreed.

On July 19, 2005, President Bush nominated Roberts to replace Sandra Day O'Connor as an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. Roberts was officially named by Bush in a live, nationwide television broadcast at 9 p.m. EDT in the East Room of the White House, though the choice had already been reported by the Associated Press at 7:44 p.m. EDT, 76 minutes before the official announcement.

Roberts is currently a member of the Federalist Society, the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, the Edward Coke Appellate American Inn of Court, and the National Legal Center for the Public Interest. He serves on the Federal Appellate Rules Advisory Committee.

Roberts would become, if confirmed, the second sitting justice to have graduated from Harvard College (along with David Souter) and the sixth sitting judge to attend Harvard Law School (Souter, Stephen Breyer, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy all graduated from Harvard Law School, while Ruth Bader Ginsberg attended there for two years). He would be the 109th justice to serve on the court.

[edit]
Notable Arguments on Behalf of Clients
[edit]
As Deputy Solicitor General
(arguing the positions formulated by the President, the Attorney General and other policy makers)

Abortion. In a brief before the Supreme Court in Rust v. Sullivan (500 U.S. 173, 1991), where he was defending the validity of a government regulation that banned abortion-related counseling by federally-funded family planning programs, Roberts wrote:
"We continue to believe that [Roe v. Wade] was wrongly decided and should be overruled. As more fully explained in our briefs, filed as amicus curiae, in Hodgson v. Minnesota, 110 S. Ct. 2926 (1990); Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 109 S. Ct. 3040 (1989); Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 476 U.S. 747 (1986); and City of Akron v. Akron Center for Reproductive Health, 462 U.S. 416 (1983), the Court's conclusions in Roe that there is a fundamental right to an abortion and that government has no compelling interest in protecting prenatal human life throughout pregnancy find no support in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution." [1]

Environmental regulation. Roberts argued against the private citizen's right to sue the federal government for violations of environmental regulations in Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation.
[edit]
Private Law Practice
(arguing the positions formulated by his clients)

Environmental regulation. Roberts argued on behalf of the National Mining Association in support of the legality of mountaintop removal, in the case Bragg v. West Virginia Coal Association. 125 people had been killed and 50 million dollars in damages caused 30 years earlier in West Virginia when a mountaintop removal or MTR valley-fill burst.
Business-labor relations. In a case before the Supreme Court, Roberts argued on behalf of mining companies who wanted to use criminal contempt fines to force the end of a strike which had been ruled unlawful. The case, International Union, United Mine Workers Of America, et al. v. John L. Bagwell, et al., ended in a ruling in favor of the unions, with the majority opinion authored by Justice Blackmun. [2]
[edit]
Judicial Opinions
[edit]
During a Confirmation Hearing
Abortion. In 2003, during his confirmation hearing for appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Roberts responded to a senator's question about Roe v. Wade: "Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land...There is nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent." Roberts was subsequently approved by a unanimous vote of the Senate.

It is likely that Roberts's own opinion on abortion and birth control will be questioned during his confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

[edit]
Opinions as Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals
Fourth and Fifth Amendments. The D.C. Circuit case Hedgepeth v. Washington Metro Authority involved a twelve-year-old girl who was taken into custody, handcuffed, and driven to police headquarters because she ate a french fry in a Washington metro station. Roberts wrote for a 3-0 panel affirming a district court decision that dismissed the girl's complaint, which was predicated on the Fourth and Fifth amendments. Roberts began his opinion by noting that "No one is very happy about the events that led to this litigation," and pointing out that the policies under which the girl was "apprehended" have since been changed. Roberts concluded the court was not authorized to second-guess the appropriateness of the District's policies: "The question before us," Roberts wrote, "is not whether these policies were a bad idea, but whether they violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution."
Civil rights. In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Roberts joined the majority in upholding military tribunals set up by the Bush administration for trying terrorism suspects, overturning the district court ruling. [3]
Environmental regulation. On the U.S. Court of Appeals, Roberts wrote a dissenting opinion siding with a developer in a case involving the protection of a rare Californian toad under the Endangered Species Act. He argued that the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution did not permit the government to regulate activity affecting what he called "a hapless toad" that "for reasons of its own lives its entire life in California."
[edit]
Sources
Wikinews has a related story:
Bush Nominates John G. Roberts for U.S. Supreme CourtNews articles

"Appellate judge Roberts is Bush high-court pick." MSNBC. July 19, 2005. [4]
"Who Is John G. Roberts Jr.?" ABC News. July 19, 2005. [5]
"John G. Roberts, Jr. Fact Sheet" La Lumiere School. [6]
Barbash, Fred, et al: "Bush to Nominate Judge John G. Roberts Jr." Washington Post. July 19, 2005. [7]
Becker, Jo, and R. Jeffrey Smith. "Record of accomplishment—and some contradictions." Washington Post. July 20, 2005. [8]
Bumuller, Elisabeth, and David Stout: "President Chooses Conservative Judge as Nominee to Court." New York Times. July 19, 2005. [9]
Entous, Adam. "Bush picks conservative Roberts for Supreme Court." Reuters. July 19, 2005. [10]
Groppe, Maureen and Tuohy, John. "'If you ask John where he's from, he says Indiana'" The Indianapolis Star. July 20, 2005 [11]
Guren, Adam M. "Alum Tapped for High Court." Harvard Crimson. July 19, 2005. [12]
McFeatters, Ann. "John G. Roberts Jr. is Bush choice for Supreme Court." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. July 19, 2005. [13]
Riechmann, Deb. "Federal judge Roberts is Bush's choice." Associated Press. July 20, 2005. [14]
Government/official

"President announces Judge John Roberts as Supreme Court nominee." Office of the Press Secretary, Executive Office of the President. [15]
"Roberts, John G., Jr." Federal Judicial Center. [16]
"John G. Roberts biography." Office of Legal Policy, U.S. Department of Justice. [17]
"Biographical Sketches of the Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit." United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. [18]
John G. Roberts Questionnaire for Appeals Court Confirmation Hearing (p. 297-339) and responses to Questions from Various Senators (p. 443-461) [19] (large PDF file)
Other

Coffin, Shannen W. "Meet John Roberts: The President Makes the Best Choice." National Review Online. July 19, 2005. [20]
Rosen, Jeffrey. "Evaluating Strict Constructionists: How to Judge." New Republic. November 29, 2004. [21]
John G. Roberts federal campaign contributions." Newsmeat.com. July 19, 2005. [22]
"John G. Roberts Jr." DKosopedia. July 19, 2005. [23]
"Report of the Alliance for Justice: Opposition to the Confirmation of John G. Roberts to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit." Alliance for Justice. URL accessed on July 19, 2005. [24] (PDF file)
"'If you ask John where he's from, he says Indiana'"[25]