Meet Chief Justice Roberts: The Man Who Saved the ACA Mandate
By Lauren Moore | 06/28/2012 | Featured, Health Care | 2 Comments
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. played a critical role in today's 5-4 ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act.
Today’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling on health care came down to Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. Here’s some background on the man who played a critical role in upholding the Affordable Care Act.
He is a conservative Washington insider who has worked at the White House, Justice Department and in private law practice. In 2005, he was nominated by President George W. Bush after the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. He also won’t have to tell you that he advised Florida Governor Jeb Bush in 2000 Presidential election.
Justice Roberts was born January 27, 1955 in Buffalo, New York, but grew up in northern Indiana. He has three sisters, Cathy Peggy and Barbara, a fact which some would say gives him a lot of background on sensitivity to women’s issues. A life long Catholic, Justice Roberts has been married to his wife Jane Sullivan Roberts since 1996. The pair adopted two Irish children, Josie, now age 10 and Jack, age 9.
Justice Roberts finished his BA in History from Harvard University in 1976 in just three years. To help pay for the university, Roberts spent every summer working in a steal mill. He then received his JD from Harvard Law School in 1979, where he was also the managing editor of the Harvard Law Review. After his schooling was completed Roberts was admitted to the bar and he served as a law clerk for the late Justice Rehnquist. After this, he took a position in the Attorney General’s office. Roberts then 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. He also spent fourteen years in private law practice.
Jane Sullivan Roberts, the justice’s wife is an accomplished attorney herself. She has earned four college degrees, including a BA from Holy Cross in 1976, an MS from Brown University in 1981 and a JD in 1984 from Georgetown University Law Center.
A few of Justice John Roberts acclaimed hobbies are reading and golfing. He also reportedly mows his own lawn.
Justice Roberts’ net worth is reported to be around $5.3 Million. The blog, Underneath Their Robes, says Roberts is, “clearly a man who has it all: a razor-sharp mind, great good looks, athleticism, a loving and adorable family, and mucho dinero. If Judge Roberts weren’t such a nice and decent person, we would all really hate him!”
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2 Comments
Craig D. Schlesinger
06.28.2012
@craigschlesinger
Is there a tally of how many conservative / Republican heads exploded after learning that Roberts wrote the majority opinion upholding the law? They were fawning over him so when Bush initially floated his name for Chief Justice. Oh, sweet irony. Where were his so-called originalist, limited government views when they were needed???
Brad R. Schlesinger
06.29.2012
@bradschlesinger
Liberals and those on the left would do well to actually read the opinion. While Obamacare is upheld, Roberts’ opinion sort of stealthily sets the stage for a long-term change in constitutional jurisprudence. By explicitly reaffirming the narrowing of the Commerce and Necessary and Proper clause that took place in Morrison and Lopez, and ruling that the mandate fails to pass muster under those clauses, over the next twenty years the Roberts court now has the chance to restore the idea that ours is a government of limited and enumerated powers. The left might have won this small battle (which is ironic since Obamacare is essentially a massive corporate giveaway) but libertarian legal theory might just end up winning the long war, and the court is now in a prime position from here on out to place strict limits on Congresses power under the Commerce clause not seen since before the days of the New Deal. This libertarian can only hope.