Chief Justice

First, the workers encased the room in reinforced concrete. Then came the thick wood-and-metal doors that seal into the walls. Behind those walls they labored in secret for two years, building a courtroom, judge's chambers and clerk's offices. The only sign that they were done came recently, when biometric hand scanners and green "Restricted Access" placards were placed at the entrances. What workers have finally completed -- or perhaps not; few really know, and none would say -- is the nation's most secure courtroom for its most secretive...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has come up with a new regulation banning demonstrations on its grounds, two days after a broader anti-demonstration law was declared unconstitutional. The regulation bans activities on the court's grounds or building such as picketing, speech-making, marching, vigils or religious services "that involve the communication or expression of views or grievances, engaged in by one or more persons, the conduct of which is reasonably likely to draw a crowd or...

John G. Roberts Jr. had a reputation as one of the most persuasive lawyers ever to argue before the Supreme Court. But in 2005, he was not able to convince a senator from Illinois that he should be confirmed as chief justice. "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind Judge Roberts is qualified to sit on the highest court in the land," Barack Obama told his fellow senators the day after their meeting. "The problem I had is that when I examined Judge Roberts's record and history of public service, it is my personal estimation that he has...

It was quite a coup for Lewis & Clark Law School to land Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to preside over its moot court competition earlier this month. But the event has not produced the kind of headlines that Dean Robert Klonoff had hoped. Indeed, it is the lack of a headline — in the college's newspaper the Pioneer Log — that has caused all of the trouble. Klonoff and administrators of the Portland, Ore., college pressured the paper's editor not to publish a story about Roberts's visit until...

A Virginia Supreme Court decision that overturned a conviction for drunken driving could result in the commonwealth's intoxicated drivers being given "one free swerve" before being pulled over, with potentially disastrous consequences, U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote Tuesday. The full Supreme Court said it will not review the 4 to 3 decision by Virginia's high court that an anonymous tip about an allegedly drunken driver is not a sufficient reason for law enforcement officers to stop the person.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday promulgated a last-minute rule that it says makes it unnecessary for the Supreme Court to decide a logging pollution case it heard Monday. But it did not win the agency or the government's lawyers any accolades from the man who sits at the center of the court's bench. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wanted to know why lawyers had not signaled earlier to the court that the agency was on the verge of enacting new rules, and perhaps saved the justices...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan's chief justice kept the pressure on President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday, demanding he respond to charges of undermining national security, in a Supreme Court inquiry into the "Memogate" controversy. Zardari returned to Pakistan early Monday from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he had been receiving medical treatment for a heart condition. His sudden departure nearly two weeks ago had sparked rumors he was fleeing the country, being ousted by the...

Reactions to Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.'s opinion for the Supreme Court, which upheld major provisions of the Affordable Care Act , divided along a predictable political fault line. Liberals applauded it; conservatives denounced it. Beyond the immediate result, however, Roberts's opinion raises an intriguing, and potentially historic, question: In abandoning the hard-driving conservative wing of the court, has Roberts finally become the chief justice of the United States in...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has come up with a new regulation banning demonstrations on its grounds, two days after a broader anti-demonstration law was declared unconstitutional. The regulation bans activities on the court's grounds or building such as picketing, speech-making, marching, vigils or religious services "that involve the communication or expression of views or grievances, engaged in by one or more persons, the conduct of which is reasonably likely to...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Roy Moore, forever known as Alabama's Ten Commandments judge, has been re-elected chief justice in a triumphant political resurrection after being ousted from that office nearly a decade ago. Republican Moore defeated Jefferson County Circuit Judge Bob Vance, a Democrat, to win back his former office. "It's clear the people have voted to return me to the office of chief justice," Moore said. "I have no doubt this is a vindication. I look forward to being the next...

I admire few journalists more than Walter Pincus, b ut his March 29 Fine Print column, urging that cameras be kept out of the Supreme Court , was misguided and surprising — given that his career has been devoted to shining light on the hidden corners of our government. The Supreme Court is in every way the people's court, yet the only way the people can see it in action is to come to Washington and wait in line — which, for the same-sex marriage cases, often meant paying line-sitters hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Cr edit-card fraud can strike anyone, anywhere. Ask Chief Justice John Roberts . Roberts usually uses a credit card to buy his morning coffee at his local Starbucks in suburban Maryland. But on Tuesday, when he needed to be extra sharp for the arguments that day over California's ban on same-sex marriage, he had to pay in cash. Seems someone had gotten his credit-card numbers, he told the cashier, and he was obliged to cancel the card. So be careful out there.

Lee J. Radek, a lawyer at the Justice Department and former chief of its Public Integrity Section, died Feb. 2 at the Inova HealthPlex medical facility in Alexandria. He was 69. He had a heart attack, said his wife, Jill Radek. Mr. Radek worked for the Justice Department for more than three decades, beginning in 1971 when he joined the criminal division as a trial lawyer. Five years later, he moved to the fledgling Public Integrity Section, which was created in the wake of the ...

When she retired from the Supreme Court in 2006, Sandra Day O'Connor, the first female justice, left behind a legacy of centrist opinions that determined the outcome of nearly every controversy of her era, from abortion rights to racial remedies. Since then, the woman known for her ranch-bred common sense has embarked on projects related to civics education and judicial independence in the states. Now she has added another piece to her public bequest with a new book. "Out of Order" is a tidy collection of...

ALMOST FOUR years ago, the Sri Lankan government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa won a decisive victory in a 26-year-long civil war with rebels from the island's minority Tamil community. The cost was horrific: A United Nations investigation subsequently found that up to 40,000 civilians may have died in the government's final offensive. But the triumph made Mr. Rajapaksa a hero among the majority Sinhalese community and gave him an opportunity to modernize his country while healing its ethnic rift.

President Obama 's State of the Union speech Tuesday was hardly one that would have kept Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — and most likely many others — from nodding off from time to time. Ginsburg, who was seated in the first row, arrived looking ready for a party — sporting a glamorous gold statement necklace over her black robe and a pair of what looked like black mesh gloves. But it wasn't just that we'd all heard many of the lines before. Seemed nothing that night was stimulating enough...

If we had it to do all over again, would we appoint Supreme Court justices for life? Allow the chief justice to keep the job forever? Let the court have the final word on which cases it hears and those it declines? A group of prominent law professors and jurists thinks not, and the group says in a letter to congressional leaders that there is no reason Congress should consider the operation of the high court sacrosanct. "We do not suggest, and would oppose, any interference with the substance of the court's work,"...

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates has been tapped to be the next chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, officials said yesterday. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made the appointment last month, and Bates will take over as chief judge in May, according to Sheldon Snook, a spokesman for the court, which was created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Bates, 62, replaces U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who has been chief FISA judge since 2002.

For nearly 200 years, Fordham law professor James J. Brudney says, Supreme Court justices rarely needed to pick up a dictionary when interpreting the laws that Congress passed. But these days, it is an increasingly common occurrence. And not because the words are getting bigger. In the 10 decisions the court has rendered ( to melt down; also, to transmit to another ) this term, two required the use of a dictionary. In one, justices looked up the definition of "transportation," and, in the other, the word "add.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — It has been nearly a year since seven skeletal inmates limped or were carried on stretchers into Pakistan's Supreme Court, whose chief justice wanted simple answers from the country's intelligence services: Why were these men, alleged to be terrorists, being held without evidence? Why had four of their fellow captives died under mysterious circumstances? Who was responsible? Today, the court seems little closer to officially finding out, despite Chief Justice Iftikhar...