Roberts, Bush Attend Red Mass At St. Matthew’s
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

WASHINGTON – Chief Justice Roberts attended a morning Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral here yesterday along with President Bush, other justices of the Supreme Court, and hundreds of area lawyers who had gathered for the annual “Red Mass” organized by the John Carroll Society, an organization of Catholic lawyers named after the first Catholic bishop in America and a cousin of the lone Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll.
Chief Justice Roberts exited the newly restored cathedral with Mr. Bush, who is expected to make a decision on a replacement for Justice O’Connor sometime this week. The White House indicated over the weekend that it has consulted with about 80 senators and could make an announcement today. Yet people close to the nomination process said the White House was still struggling yesterday to select the best suited candidate from its closely guarded shortlist of finalists.
Chief Justice Roberts set a high bar for any nominee with his calm demeanor and disarming command of constitutional law. Even more challenging for the nominee, perhaps, is that he or she is set to replace a justice who has been a longtime swing vote on the most contentious social issues of the day, Justice O’Connor.
Speculation increased late last week that the White House had whittled down its list of nominees to include a federal appeals court judge for the Third Circuit, Samuel Alito, and the White House counsel, Harriet Miers. One Senate Republican source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the process, said an appeals court judge for the Fifth Circuit who many had thought was at the top of the list, Priscilla Owen, has asked not to be considered for the post. Ms. Owen had been blocked by Democrats from her current post for two years before a bipartisan compromise earlier this year.
Following the Red Mass, hundreds of worshippers traveled two blocks to the Capital Hilton for an awards brunch. The wife of the new chief justice, Jane Roberts, attended the event. The program listed Mrs. Roberts, a Washington attorney who specializes in technology transfer with the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, as a member of the board of governors of the John Carroll Society. The organization’s Web site lists the wife of former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, Mary Ellen Bork, as historian of the society.
The John Carroll Society of Washington, D.C., has held a Red Mass on the Sunday before the Supreme Court session begins since 1928.The chaplain of the John Carroll Society, Monsignor Peter Vaghi, is the pastor of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Md., where Chief Justice Roberts and his wife are parishioners.