As the nation begins to contemplate President George W. Bush’s nominee to succeed William Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the United States, we present here The John G. Roberts Jr. Index (with apologies to Harper’s Magazine):
Years since Roberts clerked for Justice Rehnquist: 25.
Years since Roberts, a private attorney, described the Rehnquist Court as “not very conservative”: 5.
Ratio by which Roberts’ law-firm salary in 2003 will exceed his salary on the federal bench: 5 to 1.
Roberts’ net worth: $5.3 million.
Number of Democratic senators who voted against nomination of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor: 0.
Number of Republican senators who voted against the nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: 3.
Number of Supreme Court appointments in a row by GOP presidents before Ginsburg: 11.
Ratio of civil cases to criminal ones that Roberts litigated before becoming a judge: 20 to 1.
Ratio of civil cases to criminal ones handled last term by the Supreme Court: 9 to 7.
Number of Senate Judiciary Committee members who voted against Roberts’ nomination for appellate judgeship in 2003: three.
Years since Roberts helped a gay-rights group prepare for arguments before the Supreme Court over an anti-gay voter initiative in Colorado: 9.
Years since private attorney Roberts argued that Congress had failed to justify the federal affirmative-action program: 4.
Years since private attorney Roberts represented welfare recipients pro bono in a dispute over benefit eligibility: 10.
Years since federal appeals court nominee Roberts told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the death penalty is unfair because it takes too long for the sentence to be carried out: 2.
Years since Deputy Solicitor General Roberts urged the Supreme Court to end court supervision in school desegregation cases: 14.
Years since Justice Department lawyer Roberts applauded the description of privacy rights recognized in Roe vs. Wade as the “so-called ‘right to privacy.”‘: 24.
Years since Justice Department lawyer Roberts called a telegram from President Reagan to an anti-abortion group planning a memorial service for a fetus “an entirely appropriate means of calling attention to the abortion tragedy”: 24.
Years since Justice Department lawyer Roberts declared that federal habeas corpus rules (which govern appeals from state to federal court) go “far to making a mockery of the entire criminal justice system”: 24.
Years since Justice Department lawyer Roberts wrote his superiors to correct their description of baseball player Pete Rose as a “slugger”: 20.
Andrew Cohen is CBS News’ chief legal analyst and a contributing columnist to The Denver Post.
