In 1991, John G. Roberts, then deputy solicitor general in the first Bush administration, told the Supreme Court its historic decision supporting a woman's right to an abortion was "wrongly decided and should be overruled." In 2003, when Roberts was up for a judgeship, he dismissed his earlier statement as merely "one or two sentences," explaining that he only made the administration's case against Roe v. Wade because that was his responsibility as its lawyer.

After 11 years in government service and 13 years at one of Washington's largest law firms, Roberts has attained a reputation as a brilliant litigator who argues passionately for his clients' positions. The question that the Senate will debate is which of those positions are also his own.

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As a lifelong Republican, Federalist Society member and veteran of the Reagan and first Bush administrations, the 50-year-old lawyer has impeccable conservative credentials. But his rhetoric is cool, earning him many friends and few outspoken enemies. And he has maintained there is a divide between what he believes and how he regards and treats the law. "My practice," Roberts said on April 30, 2003, "has not been ideological in any sense. My clients and their positions are liberal and conservative across the board."

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His nomination that year to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit nonetheless managed to attract opposition from the liberal Alliance for Justice and NARAL, the abortion rights organization. At the same time, 146 members of the D.C. bar signed a letter calling him "one of the very best and most highly respected appellate lawyers in the nation, with a deserved reputation as a brilliant writer and oral advocate. He is also a wonderful professional colleague both because of his enormous skills and because of his unquestioned integrity and fair-mindedness."

‘Washington establishment’
"He's the type of person that business conservatives and judicial restraint conservatives will like, but the social conservatives may not like," said John C. Yoo, a professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley who served in the Justice Department earlier in the Bush administration. "What the social conservatives want is someone who will overturn Roe. v. Wade and change the court's direction on privacy.

"But he represents the Washington establishment. These Washington establishment people are not revolutionaries, and they're not out to shake up constitutional law. They might make course corrections, but they're not trying to sail the boat to a different port."

In his confirmation hearings for the appeals court, Roberts said he resisted being labeled either as an "originalist" or a "textualist," referring to the schools of legal thought that seek to interpret the Constitution according to the intent of its authors or the literal meaning of its words. He compared himself at one point to John Adams representing a British soldier involved in the Boston Massacre, noting that "the positions a lawyer presents on behalf of a client should not be ascribed to that lawyer."

But Fred F. Fielding, the boss when Roberts served as a White House deputy counsel under President Ronald Reagan, said, "I know he's conservative by talking with him about issues." Fielding added: "He's generally conservative on presidential powers," a key issue as Bush fights terrorism, and generally tends toward a "more literal reading of the Constitution."

Roberts was born in Buffalo and grew up in Long Beach, Ind., an affluent beachside town on Lake Michigan. The son of a Bethlehem Steel executive, he graduated first in his high school class and in 1973 went to Harvard University, a son of the Midwest whose middle-America values did not go unnoticed by classmates at a time when conservatives on campus were uncommon.

History student
He found a mentor in William P. LaPiana, now a law professor at New York Law School and at the time a prelaw adviser at the campus housing where Roberts lived. LaPiana remembers that while Roberts was a brilliant student of history, graduating summa cum laude in three years, he was also humble, considered a relatively rare trait for someone with Roberts's academic standing.

Roberts had received an excellent grade from a tough professor, and was eager to share the news with LaPiana. Still, he was self-deprecating about it, saying, "I think my head will fit through the door." Though LaPiana said he "probably disagrees with Roberts about just about everything," the moment stands out for him as one that indicates that he has the temperament to be a good judge. "It showed both maturity and humility," he said.

At Harvard Law School, Roberts was once again a star and known as something of a straight arrow. David W. Leebron, the law review editor and now president of Rice University, remembers stopping off for ice cream with Roberts, the review's managing editor, after working late. Roberts always chose the same flavor: vanilla chocolate chip.

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