Home > Roberts Devoted Free Time to Liberal Cases
By HOPE YEN
WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite his view that death penalty appeals are clogging the courts, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts provided free legal help to an inmate languishing on Florida’s death row for two decades.
The 25 hours of legal assistance that Roberts reported to the Senate Judiciary Committee are minuscule compared with thousands of hours contributed by dozens of other attorneys in the case of John Ferguson, who was convicted in 1978 of killing eight people in one of the worst mass murders in Florida history.
But Roberts’ pro bono, or free, work as a lawyer at Washington’s Hogan & Hartson - ranging from assisting welfare clients and gay rights activists to advising Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the 2000 presidential election dispute - suggests a man who kept an open mind when assisting clients, supporters say.
Responding this week to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire, Roberts cited cases involving minority voting rights, noise pollution at the Grand Canyon and environmental protection of Glacier Bay, Alaska.
Unlike a lot of conservative lawyers at the firm, I don't think John had a doctrinaire view about certain issues that would cause him to say, 'I shouldn't work on that,''' said Walter A. Smith, former head of Hogan's pro bono department who sought Roberts' help on major cases during the 1990s.I would have expected on these cases that he would turn them down. But none of them raised so serious a concern to him personally,’’ Smith said.
Both Republicans and Democrats have been struggling to define the man who would replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a critical swing vote on affirmative action, the death penalty and abortion, in the critical weeks leading up to the Sept. 6 start of his confirmation hearings.
In recent weeks, Senate Democrats and liberal interest groups have focused on Roberts’ record as a special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith in the Reagan administration, with memos suggesting he would aggressively move to limit civil rights, such as prisoner appeals.
The availability of federal court appeals, particularly for state prisoners, goes far to making a mockery of the entire criminal justice system,'' Roberts wrote in a Nov. 12, 1981, memorandum, decrying the endless appeals process thatobscures the rare serious claim.’’
But as a Hogan attorney more than a decade later, Roberts didn’t hesitate when colleagues asked him to provide advice involving appeals in the high-profile Florida case.
Ferguson, 56, was a triggerman in the killings of eight people in two separate, apparently drug-related shootings. His accomplices, Beauford J. White and Marvin Francois, have already been executed, but Ferguson’s appeals have continued based on claims he is mentally ill.
The case is still pending in Florida courts.
Roberts offered insights to Ferguson’s other attorneys on filing an effective appeal, said Steven Routh, a partner at Hogan who is still involved in the case. He provided what we asked for'' without objection, Routh said.
In the questionnaire, Roberts reports substantial amounts of time assisting the National Association of Attorneys General to prepare for arguments before the Supreme Court. He also has participated in moot court programs at Georgetown University and spoken to disadvantaged students about preparing for law school.
Roberts personally handled two pro bono cases. In one, he was appointed by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist to represent a man convicted of Medicare fraud and also ordered to pay a $13,000 civil fine.
Roberts successfully argued in 1989 that Irwin Halper shouldn't be forced to pay a civil fine in addition to receiving a prison sentence, although the court reversed that decision eight years later.
In the other case, he devoted more than 200 hours representing about 1,000 welfare recipients in Washington, D.C., who lost their benefits during a city budget crisis. Roberts lost that 1995 case, in which he argued that the recipients were not properly informed of the benefit change.
Some said it was hard to draw any real conclusions from Roberts' pro bono record.
They noted that the both the American Bar Association and the District of Columbia Bar Association strongly urge private law firms to provide free assistance. Pro bono cases largely tend to involve more liberal causes, making it difficult for conservatives to fulfill their requirements if they're choosy.The fact he did it is a good thing. But I don’t know if 25 hours on a death penalty case tells you anything,’’ said Larry Spalding, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida.