If 50-year-old John Roberts succeeds William Rehnquist as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, it will shape the court for decades, and Ball State University students will certainly be affected.
“Obviously, the nomination process is going to have to be very thorough because, if he is going to be on the court for so long, obviously he’s going to be involved in a lot of decisions that are going to affect this nation,” senior Mike Kostyo, president of Ball State’s Civil Liberties Union, said. “He’s going to be affecting our lives for years to come.”
Bush nominated Roberts on Monday to succeed Rehnquist, calling on the Senate to confirm him before the Supreme Court opens its fall term on Oct. 3, according to the Associated Press. The Senate is expected to begin Roberts’ confirmation hearings as chief justice on Monday. His hearings initially were to begin Tuesday for the position of associate justice to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
President George W. Bush still has to name a second person to the Supreme Court to take O’Connor’s place.
“It’s a very big deal,” Joe Losco, professor of political science, said. “With one judge, the balance of the court might not have been altered that much on some issues like abortion and school prayer or school vouchers. With the ability to name two judges, though, he can clearly move the court decisively to the right.”
Barry Umansky, Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball professor of telecommunications, said all court decisions will influence “women’s rights to choose, the level of privacy we’ll have as citizens of this country, the role of government in our daily lives and so many other issues that, during the lifetime of Ball State undergraduates, (they) will see develop as they mature.”
Another important issue is affirmative action, Losco said. He said the nation could see affirmative action outlawed if the new court sees the policy as discriminatory. Because Ball State is an affirmative action employer, some of the employment policies that reach out to minorities would be illegal, he said.
“It means there won’t be any programs to help minorities overcome past discrimination,” Losco said. “If affirmative action is outlawed, then clearly Ball State could not reach out and try to bring more minorities to the university.”
Losco said Bush exercised his constitutional right by nominating whom he wanted for chief justice.
“You can either name somebody else who is on the court ... or you can name an outsider, and he seems to think that Roberts is the ideal candidate,” Losco said. “It also means that Roberts, who is very young, would have a very long tenure as chief justice. That would really allow him to make a long-standing change in the direction of law.”
Kostyo said the American Civil Liberties Union is deeply concerned about Roberts’s record.
“In any instance, we’d hope to have a Supreme Court nominee or Supreme Court justice who would err on the side of more liberties for the people,” he said. “Unfortunately, he just doesn’t have a long record to go on, but from what we have seen, it’s not that promising ... As with any Supreme Court nominee, we hope it’s someone who protects the public’s civil liberties. I think the upcoming hearing will bring a lot out and help us understand where he stands on a lot of issues.”
Umansky said more emphasis should be geared toward who will replace O’Connor than on who will be the next chief justice.
“The focus largely will turn to the replacement for Justice O’Connor because, mathematically, she has been the swing vote,” Umansky said.
Losco, however, said the chief justice is important even though his vote doesn’t mean more than those of the other justices because he gets to assign members of the majority and minority to write opinions. He also gets to control the agenda; for example, he can influence which cases the court hears by persuading the other judges to accept or reject case applications.
“He has a lot of power to decide what issues come into the court and what move out, as well as having a lot of additional powers of persuasion since he’s at the center of information coming in and out of the court,” Losco said.
Questions have also been raised concerning whether Bush will appoint another conservative white male or go for someone more liberal, a woman or a minority to replace O’Connor.
“There are several non-white females who are every bit as conservative,” Losco said. “I think ideology is more important for him than either race or gender.”
Kostyo said he is not sure whom Bush would nominate. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the nation’s first Hispanic attorney general, seems as though he would be one of Bush’s top choices.
“Bush seems to like his style of interpreting the law, I guess,” Kostyo said. “But it’s just too hard to tell — Roberts came out of nowhere.”
Overall, having a sense of balance on the court is beneficial, Kostyo said.
Senior Rebekah Rogers, chairwoman of Ball State’s College Republicans, said balance, however, should not be Bush’s main goal.
“As far as picking a woman or a minority, I honestly think he’s just picking who he thinks will do the best job,” Rogers said. “I think it’s an option for sure, but I don’t think he should be picking a woman or a minority because he thinks there should be a balance.”
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