Early in yesterday's hearing into his nomination to be chief justice, John G. Roberts Jr. took the Senate Judiciary Committee in an unexpected direction, praising Justice Robert H. Jackson, who served as Franklin D. Roosevelt's attorney general before joining the high court.
"As he went on the court," Roberts told the senators, "he took an entirely different view of a lot of issues, in one famous case even disagreeing with one of his own prior opinions. He wrote a long opinion about how he can't believe he once held those views."
The committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), was puzzled. "Are you sending us a message?" the senator asked. Laughter bubbled from the gallery.
Roberts added that Jackson "recognized, when he became a member of the Supreme Court, that his job had changed And he took a different perspective. And that's, again, one reason many admire him, including myself." A couple of the conservatives on the committee looked up anxiously.
The exchange was emblematic of Roberts's performance on the first day fielding questions. Roberts, star litigator, adviser to presidents and top-flight jurist, showed that he could be something else: the very model of an enigmatic nominee. The Roberts who answered questions for eight hours yesterday was very much the Roberts who emerged in his writings released over the summer. He maddened the committee's Democrats, delighted its Republicans and charmed most of both.
He was sharp-tongued. When Leahy made a skeptical query about one of Roberts's Reagan administration memos, the nominee retorted: "Senator, you're vastly over-reading the memorandum."
He was quick on his feet. When Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) fired off a series of questions without allowing Roberts to answer, the nominee finally replied: "Well, I was about to lay it out. You said you didn't want to hear about it." The room filled with laughter. Biden did not smile.
And he showed flashes of wit. Asked about an old memo he wrote supporting judicial term limits, he admitted: "You know, that would be one of those memos that I no longer agree with, senator. I didn't fully appreciate what was involved in the confirmation process when I wrote that."
Asked about the views of Justice David H. Souter, Roberts replied: "Well, I don't want to directly comment on what Justice Souter said. He is either going to be a colleague or continue to be one of my bosses."
In constitutional matters, the nominee proved deft at saying much and giving away little. The only time Roberts seemed flustered was when Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) dropped the legalese. "I think it stinks that somebody can burn the flag, and that's called speech. What do you think about that?"
"Well," Roberts began, then paused, searching for words.
What Roberts did best -- or, at least, most -- was deflect questions on charged issues.
