Chief Justice John Roberts has led the U.S. Supreme Court since September 29, 2005, when the Senate confirmed him 78 to 22 to replace the late William Rehnquist.1U.S. Senate. U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 109th Congress – 1st Session At 50, he was one of the youngest people ever to take the center chair. Two decades on, he is best known for an institutionalist streak that has produced some of the era’s most consequential rulings, including the decision that saved the Affordable Care Act and the one that ended affirmative action in college admissions. He earns $320,700 a year and, as of 2025, is eligible to retire at full salary whenever he chooses.2Federal Judicial Center. Judicial Salaries – Supreme Court Justices
Background and Path to the Court
Roberts finished Harvard College summa cum laude in three years, then graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1979, where he was managing editor of the Harvard Law Review.3George W. Bush White House Archives. Judicial Nominations – Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. He clerked for Judge Henry J. Friendly on the Second Circuit and then for Associate Justice William Rehnquist, the man he would eventually succeed.
The two decades that followed alternated between government service and appellate practice. Roberts worked in the Reagan Justice Department and White House Counsel’s Office, served as Principal Deputy Solicitor General under President George H.W. Bush, and practiced at Hogan & Hartson in between. By the time he left private practice, he had argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed him by unanimous consent to the D.C. Circuit in 2003.
President George W. Bush first nominated Roberts on July 19, 2005, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. When Chief Justice Rehnquist died that September, Bush withdrew the nomination and resubmitted Roberts for the top seat. He took both the constitutional and judicial oaths the same day the Senate confirmed him.4Supreme Court of the United States. Oaths Taken by the Current Court
What the Chief Justice Does
The job is bigger than casting one vote in nine. Roberts presides over oral arguments and the justices’ private conferences, and when the majority is his, he decides who writes the opinion. Article I, Section 3 also requires the Chief Justice to preside over any Senate impeachment trial of a sitting President, a duty Roberts performed during President Trump’s first impeachment in early 2020.5Congress.gov. Article I Section 3 Clause 6 – Impeachment Trials
Outside the courtroom, federal law makes the Chief Justice head of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy-making body for the federal courts.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 331 – Judicial Conference of the United States The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts runs day-to-day operations under the Conference’s supervision. Roberts also personally designates the 11 district judges who sit on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the three who sit on the FISA Court of Review.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 U.S. Code 1803 – Designation of Judges Those appointments require no Senate confirmation. Each January he publishes a Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, which he has used to weigh in on judicial security, court funding, and, more recently, artificial intelligence in litigation.8Supreme Court of the United States. Chief Justice’s Year-End Reports on the Federal Judiciary
The Rulings That Define His Tenure
Saving the Affordable Care Act
In National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), Roberts joined the four liberal justices to uphold the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act. He rejected the government’s Commerce Clause argument but concluded that the mandate could stand as an exercise of the taxing power: the penalty was collected by the IRS through normal filing, scaled to income and dependents, and produced revenue.9Justia Law. National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012) The opinion angered many conservatives who had expected him to strike the law down.
Shelby County and the Voting Rights Act
A year later, Roberts wrote for the majority in Shelby County v. Holder (2013), striking down Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act. That section contained the coverage formula that determined which jurisdictions needed federal preclearance before changing election rules. Roberts held the formula rested on “decades-old data and eradicated practices.” The ruling did not touch Section 2’s nationwide ban on racial discrimination in voting, but it effectively disabled the preclearance regime that had operated for nearly half a century.
Dissenting on Same-Sex Marriage
Roberts dissented in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the 5-4 decision recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. He argued the majority was reading personal preference into the Constitution and closing off democratic debate. “If you are among the many Americans—of whatever sexual orientation—who favor expanding same-sex marriage, by all means celebrate today’s decision,” he wrote. “But do not celebrate the Constitution. It had nothing to do with it.”10Cornell Law Institute. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015)
Splitting the Difference on Dobbs
When the Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), Roberts refused to sign on. He concurred only in the judgment upholding Mississippi’s 15-week ban, arguing the Court should have discarded the viability line without eliminating the abortion right entirely. He called the majority’s approach an unnecessary “serious jolt to the legal system.”
Ending Race-Conscious Admissions
Roberts wrote the majority opinion in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), which held that the admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision ended race-conscious admissions across American higher education.
Presidential Immunity
In Trump v. United States (2024), Roberts authored the majority opinion recognizing absolute immunity for former Presidents against criminal prosecution for actions within their core constitutional authority, and presumptive immunity for other official acts.11Supreme Court of the United States. Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. ___ (2024) The opinion drew a line between official and unofficial conduct and told courts they may not probe a President’s motives when deciding which is which.
The Pattern
Read together, these opinions place Roberts in an unusual spot. He has sided with the Court’s liberal justices more often than any other Republican-appointed member in recent terms, particularly in disputes over precedent, administrative enforcement, and separation of powers. The pattern reads less like ideological drift than institutional protectiveness: when a case threatens what he sees as the Court’s legitimacy, Roberts tends to narrow the ruling or peel off entirely.
h2>The Court’s Ethics Code
In November 2023, under sustained public pressure over undisclosed gifts and travel accepted by several justices, the Supreme Court adopted its first written Code of Conduct. The 14-page document is organized around five canons covering integrity, avoidance of impropriety, impartial performance, extrajudicial activities, and abstention from political activity.12Supreme Court of the United States. Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States It addresses recusal, gifts, and financial disclosure, but each justice still decides recusal questions individually, and no outside body reviews compliance. Lower federal judges face judicial conduct panels; the justices do not.
Salary, Tenure, and Retirement
Roberts holds a lifetime appointment under Article III. His 2026 salary is $320,700, compared with $306,600 for the associate justices, and Article III forbids reducing a sitting justice’s pay.2Federal Judicial Center. Judicial Salaries – Supreme Court Justices
Federal judges may retire at full salary under 28 U.S.C. § 371, sometimes called the Rule of 80. A justice qualifies at age 65 with 15 years of service, at age 70 with 10, or in any combination where age and service together reach about 80.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 371 – Retirement on Salary; Retirement in Senior Status Roberts, born in 1955 and seated in 2005, crossed that threshold in 2025. Whether he takes it is his call alone.