ONE YEAR AGO, John G. Roberts Jr., at the time President Bush's nominee to be the chief justice of the United States, told senators that he aspired to be like an umpire, enforcing the rules of the game, not making them.
"My job is to call the balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat," he said. "It is a limited role.... Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire."
Roberts suggested that modesty, humility and stability in the law were the goals of his umpire credo. Not to make law, like the activist judges he disdained, but merely to interpret existing laws fairly, mindful of legislative intent and the requirements of the Constitution. And during much of his first year, he did just that.
But in several cases, he behaved differently, joining Justice Antonin Scalia in dissents that would have rolled back a major environmental law and undercut states' traditional authority over the practice of medicine. Neither would have qualified as a modest act.
On the eve of the court's new term in October, the question that was hanging in the air during his confirmation hearing remains: Will the new chief justice seek the right result, or the right's result?
In a surprising number of cases, Roberts brought together his liberal and conservative colleagues for unanimous decisions last term. In two important cases, he won the entire court's agreement for rulings that upheld laws passed by state lawmakers or by Congress, an act consistent with his judge-as-umpire philosophy.
In Ayotte vs. Planned Parenthood, the New Hampshire Legislature had passed a law requiring doctors to notify parents of girls under 18 who were seeking an abortion. Doctors were to wait 48 hours before proceeding. The only exception was to save the life of the mother.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood sued on behalf of several doctors, contending that the law was unconstitutional because it did not include a "health" exception. In the past, the high court had said states may not regulate abortion in a way that jeopardizes the health of women. A federal judge and the U.S. Court of Appeals struck down the entire law for that reason.
New Hampshire appealed, arguing that the law allowed girls to go before a judge and seek a waiver in special situations. The ACLU lawyers said that was insufficient. If a girl is facing a medical emergency, she should go to a hospital, not a court, they said.
