After graduating from law school in 1979, Roberts clerked for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, in New York, and then for Associate Justice William H. Rehnquist.

After that, he worked as a special assistant to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith and joined Reagan's staff as an aide to White House counsel Fielding, who became his mentor in GOP circles.

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Roberts joined the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson in 1986, then went into President George H.W. Bush's administration, arguing cases before the Supreme Court as Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr's principal deputy. He was nominated to the D.C. Circuit in 1992, but the appointment died when Bill Clinton succeeded Bush as president. Roberts returned to Hogan & Hartson, where he headed the firm's appellate practice and frequently argued before the Supreme Court.

Quiet role in Florida recount
In the aftermath of the disputed 2000 presidential election, Roberts played a key, if quiet, role in the Florida recount. Although his name did not appear on the briefs, three sources who were personally aware of Roberts's role said he gave Gov. Jeb Bush (R) critical advice on how the Florida Legislature could constitutionally name George W. Bush the winner at a time when Republicans feared that if the recount were to continue the courts might force a different choice.

Roberts's first writing as a federal judge was an opinion dissenting from a decision by his colleagues on the U.S. Court of Appeals not to reconsider a three-judge panel's ruling protecting a rare California toad under the Endangered Species Act.

Roberts thought the court ought to give a developer whose freedom of action had been restricted in favor of the toad another chance to make his argument that the Constitution did not permit the government to regulate activity affecting what he called "a hapless toad" that "for reasons of its own lives its entire life in California."

But Roberts made this conservative point in moderate tones -- though his opinion hinted he might side with the developer, he hardly committed to doing so in advance.

"To be fair," he wrote, the panel "faithfully applied" the circuit court's precedent, but a rehearing would "afford the opportunity to consider alternative grounds for sustaining application of the Act that may be more consistent with Supreme Court precedent."

And that, say the many Washington lawyers, judges and public officials who know him, is Roberts in a nutshell.

Paul Mogin, Roberts's law school roommate and now a Washington lawyer, said Roberts was rarely confrontational about his politics and said he could not point to a significant discussion that led them to conclude that he was conservative. "I just knew he was conservative across the board," said Mogin, "It just came across whenever we would get to talking about movies or politics or something."

But, he added, "I doubt he has any particular agenda that he'd be going into the court with."

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