I blogged earlier about what I thought was the highlight of Chief Justice Roberts's exchange with Judge Rosenthal at the Baker Institute. Here, I will flag a few of Roberts's comments of interest.
First, Roberts spoke about the difficult summer of 2005. In the span of a short span, he was nominated for Justice O'Connor's seat, Chief Justice Rehnquist died, and Roberts was then nominated for the Chief Justice seat.
Well, the beginning it was very emotionally draining, you're right. It was a level of tension. I mean, if I get nervous before arguing, you can imagine what it was like to get nervous before those hearings. And Chief Justice Rehnquist had been very much a mentor to me, and it was Saturday night, and I gone to bed. I was trying to get rested up. My wife called to tell me that the chief had passed away. And then the next morning, I got a call from the White House, and they wanted me to come in and had another interview with President Bush that afternoon, and then the next morning, they announced my nomination to be chief the day after that, I'm helping carry Chief Justice Rehnquist casket up to the lie in repose at the court, and the new hearings are starting the next week. There's just an awful lot going on, and I had to start learning a little bit more about Chief Justice's and their role, because that obviously hadn't been a been a focus. And I do remember thinking, you know, everything was looking pretty good with the first nomination.
