Roberts sworn in as 17th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court

According to an article published on MSNBC.com, the United States Senate confirmed on Thursday the nomination of Judge John Roberts to be the 17th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. At 50 years old, Roberts will be the youngest Chief Justice in 200 years.

The Senate voted 78-22 to confirm Chief Justice Roberts to the position. Chief Justice Roberts was sworn into the office at about 3:00pm on Thursday by Associate Justice John B. Stevens at a White House ceremony attended by his wife, daughter, son and other members of his family, as well as President George bush and seven current Justices of the Court. Chief Justice Roberts will begin his duties on the Court when it begins its next session this coming Monday, October 3, 2005.

According to an article on 365gay.com, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights groups strongly opposed the confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts on the grounds that many of his positions on LGBT rights and equality were never uncovered during Senate confirmation hearings.

Chief Justice Roberts helped gay rights activists defeat an anti-gay measure in Colorado when he worked for a law firm representing them.

LGBT groups have promised to promote closer scrutiny of the person nominated to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

President Bush is set to make an announcement soon on who he will nominate to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. First Lady Laura Bush has come out in support of nominating a woman and yesterday at Wake Forest University Justice Ginsberg also said she was in favor of nominating a woman. It is rumored that Bush’s list of possibel nominees includes US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, as well as many more radically conservative persons.

Court’s next session includes gay military case
According to an article on 365gay.com, one of the first cases which will be heard by the Roberts court includes a challenge to the Solomon Amendment which allows the federal government to strip away federal funding from school who disallow military recruiters. Twenty-four law schools are challenging the amendment, saying that the military is discriminatory toward gay and lesbian Americans. The twenty-four law schools claim that by allowing military recruiters on their campuses, they are breaking their own non-discrimination policies which include sexual orientation.

The issue of marriage equality for same-sex couples is also expected to reach the Roberts court, although it could not materialize for a few more sessions.

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In my honest opinion, I believe that Chief Justice Roberts will be a great Chief Justice. I am hopeful that he will treat all Americans with full equality under the law.

Of course, I could turn out to be wrong in the future, but I hope I won’t be. Chief Justice Roberts will perform his duties well.

Updated 3:32pm 9-29-2005

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