Chief Justice of the United States


The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the Judicial Branch of the government of the United States, and presides over the Supreme Court of the United States. The position is currently vacant; the most recent Chief Justice, William H. Rehnquist, died on September 3, 2005. During the vacancy, the Court's senior Associate Justice, John Paul Stevens, temporarily assumes the Chief Justice's administrative duties at the Court. [1] On September 5, 2005, President Bush nominated John G. Roberts, Jr. to fill the vacancy.

The office is often but incorrectly referred to as "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court." The United States Code specifies the title as "Chief Justice of the United States," and thus, not just of the Court itself. The title changed at the suggestion of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, who wished to emphasize the Court's role as a coequal branch of government. By contrast, the other eight members of the Court are Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, not "Associate Justices of the United States."

The Chief Justice, like an Associate Justice, is nominated by the President and confirmed to sit on the Court by the U.S. Senate. The Constitution of the United States states that all Justices of the Court "shall hold their offices during good behavior," meaning that appointments are for life: they end only when a Justice chooses to retire, dies, or is impeached and convicted by the Congress. Some Chief Justices, like William H. Rehnquist, were elevated by the President after having served previously on the bench as an Associate Justice. Justices who are elevated to the position of Chief Justice from that of Associate Justice must again be confirmed by the Senate (a rejection by the Senate, however, does not end their tenure as an Associate Justice, it merely prevents them from serving as Chief Justice). Most Chief Justices, like William Howard Taft (a former President himself) and Earl Warren, are nominated to the highest position on the Court without any previous experience on the Court, or indeed in the entire United States Judiciary. #p#分页标题#e#

Duties

In addition to the duties of the Associate Justices, the Chief Justice has the following duties:
• If the Chief Justice is in the majority on a Supreme Court case, he or she may decide to write the Opinion of the Court, or may assign it to an associate justice of his or her choice.
• The Constitution stipulates that the Chief Justice shall preside when the Senate tries an impeachment of the President of the United States.
o Two Chief Justices, Salmon P. Chase and William Rehnquist, have had the duty of presiding over the trial in the Senate that follows an impeachment of the President – Chase in 1868 over the proceedings of President Andrew Johnson and Rehnquist in 1999 over the proceedings against President Bill Clinton.
• Presides over the impeachment trial of the Vice President if the Vice President is serving as Acting President (not a Constitutional responsibility but a rule of the Senate; no Vice President has been impeached, though Spiro Agnew resigned under threat of impeachment, and none has been Acting President for more than a few hours).
• Administers the oath of office at the inauguration of the President of the United States. This is a traditional, not a constitutional, responsibility of the Chief Justice. All federal and state judges, as well as notaries public, are empowered by law to administer oaths and affirmations.
• Serves as the Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution.
• Serves as the head of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the chief administrative body of the U.S. federal courts. The Judicial Conference is empowered by the Rules Enabling Act to promulgate rules to ensure the smooth operation of the federal courts. Major portions of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Evidence have been adopted by most state legislatures and are considered canonical by American law schools.