AP reports that President Bush has now nominated John Roberts to replace Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Roberts is young, only 50 years old. This means that with good health he’ll be on the court for 30+ years, and influence American jurisprudence over multiple generations. It’s a good bet that at the end of his term the Supreme Court will have made decisions that will carry into the 22^nd century and beyond. Whether that will be good or bad is something that we in this generation will never know.

Technically, the Chief Justice has little more influence on the court and its decisions than do the other eight Justices. His duties consist largely of oversight of the Supreme Court and the Federal Court System, but the political influence is relatively negligible. Practically, the head of the Judicial Branch of our government is a hugely influential person. A simple speech can define a stance on an issue, and influence politicians, voters, and lobbyists.

Still, Republican presidents since Nixon have not been very lucky in their Court appointments.

Blackmun, Powell, Stevens, Kennedy (this weasel thumbed his nose at over 200 years of American Judicial sovereignty by quoting international law in an opinion!), and Souter (thanks for Kelo, how’s the old homeplace?) were all nominated by Republican presidents with a more-or-less conservative outlook, but proved to be less conservative than had been originally hoped.

Whether Roberts will turn from his conservative roots and join with the more moderate — or worse yet, liberal! — elements of the Court is something that time will reveal. And of course, after confirmation, it will be too late. Like with all previous Justices, this is something that time will reveal.