Nominee for chief justice would be third Catholic in that position

Published: 2005-09-06

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Should Judge John G. Roberts be confirmed as the chief justice of the United States, he would become the third Catholic to hold that post. Two days after the Sept. 3 death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, President George W. Bush announced that he was nominating Roberts, 50, to become the new chief. In July Bush had nominated Roberts to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. His decision to make Roberts his nominee for chief justice means there remains a vacancy for an associate justice. Confirmation hearings for Roberts were to begin sometime after Rehnquist's Sept. 7 funeral. The first Catholic on the Supreme Court was also the first Catholic chief justice. Justice Roger B. Taney served as chief from 1836 until 1864. Taney, the son of a Maryland plantation owner and slaveholder, was named to the court to fill the vacancy for chief justice. The only other Catholic to have been chief justice, Edward Douglas White, was elevated to the position in 1910 after 16 years on the court as an associate justice.

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