President Bush's Supreme Court pick, John G. Roberts, and University of Utah President Michael K. Young may one day have a reunion on the U. campus.

They once ran in the same legal circles in Washington, D.C., and Young recalls having lunch with Roberts on occasion to talk about the latest Supreme Court decisions.

"He's enormously smart," Young said over the phone Wednesday.

Young said Roberts is one of several justices whom he would feel comfortable calling to give a speech or commencement address on the U. campus.

The names on that list include the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, whom Roberts will replace if the Republican-controlled Senate confirms Bush's choice.

Young and Roberts are both Harvard law graduates and were law clerks, though not at the same time, to Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. Since 1978, Young said he and Roberts have attended reunions held for former clerks of Rehnquist. Young calls Roberts a "terrifically balanced" lawyer.

"He's not an ideologue, in my opinion," Young said.

Roberts starts with a set of premises about what the Constitution says and then he reasons from those, Young added. "He's very attentive to the words of the Constitution — he's a terrific legal craftsman, balanced, thoughtful, careful, very measured. I, for one, think he will make a terrific justice."

Young became the U. president last year after serving as dean of the George Washington University Law School. During his time in Washington Young followed Roberts' career.

"I think he had a successful tenure in the solicitor general's office," Young said.

Roberts, currently a federal appeals court judge, was the principal deputy solicitor general between 1989 and 1993, considered the government's second-highest lawyer. It was then he argued cases before the Supreme Court.

"I've had justices tell me that they consider him to be one of the most skilled, helpful, informative advocates who appear before the court," Young said. "My guess is that you will find that opinion widely shared in Washington."

Young said he sent Roberts a note of congratulations this week upon hearing about the nomination.

While at George Washington University, Young said justices he persuaded to speak there included Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, O'Connor and Rehnquist. Young brought Ruth Bader Ginsberg to speak at Columbia University where he taught mostly Japanese law from 1978 to 1998.

Young is excited by the thought of at least inviting Roberts to the U.

"I would love to get him out here to speak," he said.

Another benefit to the U., Young added, might be his ability to call Roberts and suggest certain U. law students for clerk positions in the Supreme Court.

---

Contributing: Associated Press

E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com