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About
John Glover Roberts Jr. is the 17th and current Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005 following the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Born on January 27, 1955, in Buffalo, New York, Roberts grew up in Long Beach, Indiana, after his family relocated there in 1959 due to his father's job promotion at Bethlehem Steel. He excelled academically, graduating at the top of his class from La Lumiere School, a Catholic boarding school in Indiana, before attending Harvard College where he earned an A.B. in history summa cum laude in 1976. Roberts then attended Harvard Law School, receiving his J.D. cum laude in 1979. His early career included prestigious clerkships with Judge Henry J. Friendly on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice William H. Rehnquist on the Supreme Court. He served in the Reagan administration as Associate Counsel to the President from 1982 to 1986 and later as Principal Deputy Solicitor General in the George H.W. Bush administration from 1989 to 1993, arguing numerous cases before the Supreme Court.
From 1993 to 2003, Roberts was a highly successful appellate lawyer and partner at the Washington, D.C., firm Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells), where he argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court, winning 25. During the 2000 presidential election, he served as an attorney on George W. Bush's legal team challenging the Florida vote recount in Bush v. Gore. In 2003, President Bush nominated him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where he served until his elevation to the Supreme Court. Confirmed as Chief Justice on September 29, 2005, by a 78-22 Senate vote, Roberts has authored key opinions on issues such as campaign finance, voting rights, and healthcare. While often aligning with conservative justices, he has occasionally provided swing votes, notably upholding the Affordable Care Act in 2012, which drew criticism from conservatives. He is known for his originalist judicial philosophy and efforts to maintain the Court's institutional integrity.
Roberts is married to Jane Marie Sullivan, a lawyer and former executive director of a Catholic adoption agency, since 1996; they have two adopted children, Josephine and John "Jack." A devout Catholic, he has no known major legal or personal scandals, though his judicial decisions have sparked controversies, including allegations of judicial activism from both political sides. His professional network includes ties to Republican administrations and figures such as Ted Cruz, whom he recruited to Hogan & Hartson.