Reagan Files Paint Court Nominee as a Watchdog [View All]

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-roberts19aug19,0,5491555.story?track=tottext

Reagan Files Paint Court Nominee as a Watchdog
By David G. Savage, Richard Simon and Henry Weinstein
Times Staff Writers

August 19, 2005

WASHINGTON — As a White House lawyer in the Reagan administration, John G. Roberts Jr. did not spend all of his time analyzing the great legal issues of the day. Instead, judging from the thousands of pages of his files that were released Thursday, the Supreme Court nominee spent much of his time acting as a gatekeeper and editor for the president.

He repeatedly tried to keep President Reagan's friends from taking advantage of his office. He sought to keep the president from lending his name or office to promoting commercial interests. Sometimes, he intervened to keep Reagan from saying things he might regret.

When actor Jimmy Stewart wrote to Reagan in 1983 to ask him to serve on an advisory board for his son's prep school in Arizona, for instance, Roberts wrote a stern memo advising that the president "should not accept Stewart's invitation." The school planned to use Reagan's name to raise money. It would be "demeaning to the office, using it as a huckster's ploy," Roberts wrote.

When some wealthy Republicans from Dallas invited the Reagans to a gala dinner, Roberts advised against attending on the grounds that sponsors were using the event as part of the grand opening of a shopping mall.<snip>