John Roberts Nomination

In 2003, President Bush nominated John Roberts to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. He was confirmed and, as previously reported, heard some very interesting cases.

Roberts' nomination was received by the Senate on January 7, 2003. He was confirmed by a voice vote on May 8, 2003. Because he was confirmed by a voice vote, there are no records as to which Senators voted against his confirmation. In total, his confirmation took 4 months.

Between 1992 and 2003, John Roberts was nominated to the D.C Circuit Court on three separate occassions. Each of these nominations was returned to the President under "the provisions of Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6 of the Standing Rules of the Senate". This rule is as follows:

Nominations neither confirmed nor rejected during the session at which they are made shall not be acted upon at any succeeding session without being again made to the Senate by the President; and if the Senate shall adjourn or take a recess for more than thirty days, all nominations pending and not finally acted upon at the time of taking such adjournment or recess shall be returned by the Secretary to the President, and shall not again be considered unless they shall again be made to the Senate by the President. (ref)

According to CNN, his nomination in 1992 "did not come up for a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate before the White House changed hands in January 1993." Once President Clinton took office in 1993, he nominated Judith Rogers to the court in place of Mr. Roberts. Rogers, a graduate of the University of Virginia law school, was confirmed on March 10th, 1994.

There is no explanation provided for the failure of Roberts' other two nominations.

Since the THOMAS system does not allow for easy linking, clicking the following button is the only way to quickly access the records for Mr. Roberts' nominations.