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Chief Justice offers advice, opinions during rare visit
By Dan McCue
Staff Writer
In a recent and rare visit to the Holy City to speak with students of the Charleston School of Law, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts said that those in attendance aspiring to be a judge should concentrate first on being good lawyers and should strive for balance in both their personal and professional lives.
“In other countries, you can go to school to be a judge, but I think it’s a real strength of our system that judges are pulled from the ranks (of the legal community),” Roberts said.
“Opportunities for public service will come, if you are fortunate, but you have to be a good lawyer first and take as many different kinds of cases as you can to garner a breadth of experience.”
More than 1,000 people, ranging from students to members of the Charleston Bar Association and dignitaries such as Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. and former U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings, attended the closed event at the Galliard Municipal Auditorium on Oct. 20.
Roberts, who proved to be grounded, honest, decent and surprisingly funny during the hour-long event, was invited to South Carolina by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who sat on the panel that confirmed his nomination in September 2005. Earlier in the day the chief justice had spoken at a similar event at the University of South Carolina School of Law in Columbia.
Graham called Roberts’ visit a coup for the law school at a time when it is still seeking accreditation.
Nomination process is too long
After some brief opening remarks, Roberts was questioned by a panel that included William W. Wilkins, chief judge of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals; U.S. District Judge P. Michael Duffy; John L.S. Simpkins, the law school’s diversity director; and third-year student Ashley O. Rockwell.
Given his relatively brief tenure on the court, it was not surprising that two of his inquisitors asked about the public Senate Judicial confirmation process he’d recently experienced.
Roberts said he believes the process is both too long and somewhat unfair.
“Too much of the process is devoted to the senators asking the nominee questions we really can’t answer,” he said. “You can’t give senators assurances on a vote and expect to be accepted by your fellow judges. I also think it’s somewhat unfair to expect the nominee to stay in the hearing room all day, every day of the process, while the individual senators come and go,” Robert said. “They enter the room to ask their half hour of questions, then get to leave again.”
Foreign visitors are reverent
Since being confirmed, Roberts has been surprised and impressed by the number of judges who visit the court from emerging democracies around the world. Seven hundred judges have visited from the former Soviet Union alone, he said.
“They recognize that our independent judiciary is a model they want to follow, and they view our Supreme Court somewhat reverentially,” Roberts said.
He then went on to recall a recent meeting with judges from China.
“One of them asked whether we ever rule against the government and what happens when we do,’ Roberts said. “I told him, ‘Nothing happens.’ He then looked downcast and said, ‘The same thing happens in our country.’
“I said, ‘No, no, I misunderstood your question. I should have said nothing unusual happens. They abide by our decisions.’ Clearly, they realize how precious the rule of law is.”
But the chief justice also went on to say that he is dismayed by how poor relations are between the three branches of the federal government at the moment.
“I’m discouraged that inter-branch relations are as bad as they are,” Roberts said. “I don’t know a point where the judiciary’s stock and stature with the other branches has been as low as it is at this time.”
Roberts said that a big concern among the justices of the Supreme Court is the increasing partisanship of the other branches.
“We really do worry that this partisanship will extend into our branch, which I think would be a very unfortunate development,” he said.
Roberts said he is trying to address the problem by reaching out and getting to know the members of the judiciary committees of both houses of Congress.
“I want to know what their concerns are and want them to know what mine are, and I emphasis that I see our dialogue as a give and take,” he said. “My predecessor and former boss Chief Justice (William) Rehnquist used to say there’s no reason to think that judges have the only insight into the operation of the judiciary.”
Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.
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