cnn
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Here's a look at the life of John Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Birthdate: January 27, 1955
Place of birth: Buffalo, New York
Birth name: John Glover Roberts Jr.
Father: John Glover Roberts Sr., steel company executive
Mother: Romero (Podrasky) Roberts
Marriage: Jane (Sullivan) Roberts (July 27, 1996-present)
Children: Adopted with Jane Roberts: John and Josephine
Education: Harvard University, AB, 1976; Harvard Law School, J.D., 1979
Religion: Roman Catholic
He grew up in Long Beach, Indiana.
As a government attorney and in private practice, he argued 39 cases before the United States Supreme Court and won 25 of them.
Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution.
Roberts is the youngest chief justice since John Marshall in 1801.
1979-1980 – Clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly, United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
1980-1981 – Clerk to Supreme Court Associate Justice William Rehnquist.
1981-1982 – Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States, William French Smith.
1982-1986 – Associate attorney to President Ronald Reagan.
1986-1989 – Partner and head of the appellate division of Hogan & Hartson, Washington, DC.
1989 – Roberts presents his first case before the Supreme Court: United States v. Halper.
1989-1993 – Principal Deputy Attorney General of the United States Government.
1992 – He is nominated by President George HW Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The Senate never takes action on the nomination.
1993 – He suffers a seizure.
1993-2003 – Return to Hogan and Hartson.
2001 – Roberts represents 18 states and the District of Columbia in the appeal of the Microsoft antitrust case, United States v. Microsoft.
May 2001 – He is nominated by President George W. Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The vote stalled when Democrats took control of the Senate in June 2001.
November 13, 2002 – Roberts defends Megan's Law before the Supreme Court. The law creates a sex offender registry that can be searched online.
May 8, 2003 – The Senate votes unanimously to confirm his appointment to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
September 5, 2005 – He is nominated by George W. Bush for Chief Justice of the United States following the death of Chief Justice Rehnquist.
September 12 to 15, 2005 – Senate confirmation hearings are held. On September 29, the The Senate votes 78-22 to confirm Roberts.
2007 – He suffers another seizure. The Supreme Court later says in a statement that doctors called the episode a “benign idiopathic seizure,” similar to the one Roberts suffered in 1993. An idiopathic seizure is one without an identifiable physiological cause.
January 21, 2009 – He re-administered the oath of office to President Barack Obama a day after the official swearing-in ceremony, during which Roberts missed a word in the oath and caused Obama to stumble during the recitation.
June 28, 2012 – In National Federation of Independent Business 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 parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Roberts writes, 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 who live not only in states with their own exchanges but also in the 34 states with federal exchanges.
June 26, 2015 – Roberts writes a dissent against the court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.
May 23, 2016 – With a majority opinion written by Roberts, the court rules in favor of a death row inmate who claims he did not get a fair trial because of racial discrimination during the jury selection process.
December 31, 2017 – Roberts announces, in his year-end report on the state of the judiciary, that an evaluation of how the judiciary handles sexual harassment allegations will take place in 2018. Roberts says recent events “have illuminated the depth of the problem of sexual harassment.” in the workplace” and made it clear that the “judiciary is not immune.”
June 26, 2018 – Roberts writes the majority opinion supporting President Donald Trump's travel ban, stating, “The Proclamation is squarely within the scope of presidential authority.”
November 21, 2018 – Roberts issues statement in response to Trump criticizing District Court Judge Jon Tigar as an “Obama judge.” Roberts says: “We don't have judges from Obama or Trump, Bush or Clinton. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges who do everything they can to provide the same right to those who appear before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be grateful for.”
January 16, 2020 – After being sworn in by Senator Chuck Grassley, Roberts swears an oath to US senators to do “impartial justice, in accordance with the Constitution and the laws.” Roberts will preside over President Trump's impeachment trial.
January 22, 2020 – He scolds both Democratic House managers and Trump's defense team after a contentious exchange on the Senate floor during the impeachment trial, saying: “I think it's appropriate for me to admonish both the House managers of Representatives and the president's lawyers on equal terms so that they remember that they are addressing the largest deliberative body in the world.
January 30, 2020 – Roberts publicly refuses to read a question from Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky during the Senate impeachment trial naming the alleged Ukraine whistleblower.
February 5, 2020 – Roberts receives a golden gavel for presiding over the impeachment trial before thanking the Senate and officially adjourning the trial. Trump was acquitted of both articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
June 21, 2020 – Roberts is briefly hospitalized after falling while walking near his home, according to a Supreme Court spokeswoman.
May 3, 2022 – Roberts announces that the Supreme Court will investigate the leak of a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. In a statement, Roberts says: “This was a singular and egregious violation of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here. “I have ordered the marshal of the court to launch an investigation into the origin of the leak.” On January 19, 2023, the Supreme Court issues an investigative report and announces that it has yet to determine who leaked a draft opinion.
June 29, 2023 – Roberts issues majority opinion ending affirmative action for college admissions programs.
