Roberts becomes nation's 17th chief justice
He wins 78-22 vote; new court pick nears
WASHINGTON -- John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in yesterday as the 17th chief justice of the United States, after winning an easy confirmation in the Senate. He is the youngest man in more than two centuries to inherit the most powerful life-tenured position in US government.
Roberts, 50, won Senate confirmation by a 78-to-22 vote in a bipartisan endorsement of his credentials, his demeanor, and his careful testimony.
Throughout his confirmation hearings, Roberts declined to answer questions about his views on specific issues, but he also pledged that he would bring no political agenda to his interpretation of the Constitution.
''I view the vote this morning as confirmation of what I believe is a bedrock principle -- that judging is different from politics," he said after his brief swearing-in ceremony at the White House.
With Roberts on the bench, focus immediately shifted to the remaining Supreme Court opening.
Bush may announce his choice to fill the second vacancy, the seat held by retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, as early as today. Activists on both sides predicted that the next confirmation fight could be far more contentious than the wrangling over Roberts.
Liberal interest groups expressed frustration that Senate Democrats had not mounted unified opposition to Roberts, whom they accused of having masked a conservative record dating to his days as Justice Department aide in the Reagan administration by declining to commit himself in his nomination hearings on issues such as abortion rights and affirmative action.
''We are disappointed with those Democrats and moderate Republicans who chose to support Judge Roberts despite his long record of working to undermine rights and legal protections, his evasive answers to the Senate, and the Bush administration's continued refusal to release key documents that would have illuminated his record and approach to the Constitution," said Ralph Neas, president of the liberal People for the American Way.
Ultimately, 22 Senate Democrats voted against Roberts; 22 voted for him. But several Democrats who backed Roberts have signaled that they will be more skeptical of Bush's next nominee.
The president has hinted that he is likely to nominate a woman or a minority for the next opening, telling reporters that he understands that ''diversity is one of the strengths of the country."
The list of frequently mentioned possible selections includes former Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson; Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; White House Counsel Harriet Miers; Maura D. Corrigan, a Michigan Supreme Court justice; and appeals court judges Alice Batchelder, Edith Jones, Edith Brown Clement, Priscilla Owen, and Janice Rogers Brown.
Brown, an African-American woman, is a favorite of the conservative wing of the Republican Party. But leading Senate Democrats have warned Bush not to nominate her or Owen. Both have strongly conservative records as state Supreme Court justices before they were named to federal appeals court judges this year.
Democrats had blocked their nominations for two years by using filibusters, to prolong the debating period under Senate rules.
In May, Brown and Owen received confirmation under a compromise worked out by Senate moderates of both parties.
On Wednesday, the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent Bush a letter that warned him not to name to the Supreme Court any of the judges who had been covered by the Senate compromise.
''The nomination of any of these individuals to the Supreme Court would represent an unnecessary provocation, and would be met by substantial opposition in the Senate," they wrote.
Bush will also face pressure from social conservatives in his party, who supported Roberts despite his lack of any track record on abortion rights.
Social conservatives say that for the next nominee, they would want a more established record on such issues.
In particular, conservatives mistrust Gonzales, saying he is too moderate, and are unsure of what to make of Thompson, who has never been a judge but is a close friend of Justice Clarence Thomas, the most conservative justice on the Supreme Court.
''The real question" for social conservative activists ''is whether Bush wants to win conservative favor and have a chit to call in, because he's got three years left, and he's going to need them," said Manuel Miranda of the conservative Third Branch network, adding that any nominee should ''appear even more conservative than Roberts or have a written record on key issues."
If Bush has made up his mind, he is keeping his choice a closely guarded secret.
''The people who would know have not been talking to anybody but each other," said Sean Rushton, executive director of the conservative Committee for Justice. ''The message broadcast by the White House up to this point has just been to focus on an orderly process for Roberts."
Roberts will take his place at the center of the bench for the opening of the court's new term on Monday. O'Connor will continue to serve, until her replacement is confirmed. This term, the court will hear cases involving parental notification abortion laws, physician-assisted suicide, the use of hallucinogenic drugs in religious rituals, and the ability of universities to bar military recruiters, among other issues.
Roberts is the first new justice on the court since 1994, marking an end to the second-longest period of court stability in history.
Marking the historic significance of the changes that are now rippling through the nation's high court, the Senate took its vote yesterday with an unusual degree of formality. Each sat at his or her assigned desk to vote aye or no.
The Senate majority leader, Bill Frist of Tennessee, spoke of the importance of the moment.
John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, arrived late, taking his seat as the alphabetical last-name roll call moved into ''S." He waited until the end, and an elbow nudge from Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico, to cast his ''no" vote.
When the votes were tallied and announced, the normally reserved Jane Sullivan Roberts, sitting in the front row of a public gallery overlooking the chamber, smiled broadly at her husband's victory.
But more political battles loom. Less than an hour later, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, told women at a Democratic Party luncheon that she had voted ''no" on Roberts out of fear that he would turn back progress for women and minorities.
''You have to do what you believe is right," she declared.
The room broke into applause.
Nina J. Easton of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 