John G. Roberts Jr. ’76 speaks at the White House announcement of his nomination to the Supreme Court on Tuesday night as President George W. Bush looks on. Roberts next faces Senate confirmation hearings.

John G. Roberts ’76, a respected litigator and conservative appeals court judge, has been nominated by President George W. Bush to the post of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

If confirmed, Roberts, who also graduated from Harvard Law School (HLS) in 1979, would become the nation’s 109th justice, replacing outgoing justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who announced her retirement from the high court earlier this month.

Bush announced his nomination at a press conference in the Cross Hall of the White House Tuesday night, praising Roberts, who he said he hopes will be acceptable to both sides of the political spectrum.

“John Roberts has devoted his entire professional life to the cause of justice. And he’s widely admired for his intellect, his sound judgment, and personal decency,” Bush said.

Roberts, 50, has spent the last two years as a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, where he has earned his reputation as a conservative. He has, however, yet to weigh in on many of the most divisive issues that the Court may face in the coming years, including abortion and the death penalty.

He has two known public statements on abortion: his circuit court confirmation hearing—in which he said that, as an appeals judge, he would uphold Supreme Court precedent—and a 1991 brief he signed on behalf of the first Bush administration while he was Deputy Solicitor General. The brief said that “we continue to believe that Roe [v. Wade] was wrongly decided and should be overruled.”

Roberts clerked for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist while Rehnquist was an associate justice and has won more than two dozen cases before the Supreme Court, earning a reputation as one of Washington’s finest litigators.

On Wednesday, Justice O’Connor called Roberts “first rate.”

She said that, although she is disappointed that Bush did not nominate a woman, she found Roberts’ past work impressive.

“I and my colleagues have been enormously impressed with his scholarship and his skills.”

Roberts will face nomination hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, most probably in September. After those hearings, Roberts must be approved for the Court by a simple majority of senators.

If confirmed, Roberts would tint the already Harvard-packed Court a still-deeper shade of Crimson, becoming the seventh member of the Court to have attended Harvard. David H. Souter ’61 graduated from the College, while Justices Souter, Stephen G. Breyer, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony M. Kennedy hold HLS degrees. Ruth Bader Ginsburg attended HLS for two years, and Justice Rehnquist holds an M.A. in government from the University.

AT FIRST A HISTORIAN

Roberts graduated from the College with a summa cum laude degree in history in only three years.

“John was a serious student,” said Robert N. Bush ’77, who was Roberts’ roommate for three years, first in Straus Hall and then in Leverett House. “There were no parties, but John did have a social life.”