US: John Roberts was sworn in as the 17th chief justice of the United States yesterday, taking his oath at a White House ceremony attended by President Bush and other justices of the supreme court.
Mr Bush said it was "a very meaningful event in the life of our nation" - almost 19 years to the day since the late chief justice William Rehnquist took his oath in the same room at the White House, the east room.
Mr Roberts (50) was sworn in a little more than three hours after he was confirmed by the senate on a vote of 78-22, with 22 Democrats crossing the aisle, as the president watched with his nominee on a White House television.
The oath was delivered by Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's senior member and acting chief justice since Rehnquist's death earlier this month.
"When the vote went over 50 senators, the whole room in the Roosevelt Room broke out into applause for Judge Roberts, who nodded and expressed his appreciation," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
"The president shook his hand and congratulated him," Mr McClellan said.
The appointment marked a rare victory for President Bush in a blizzard of setbacks, failures and embarrassments.
Although many liberals suspect the new chief justice will turn out to be a radical rightwinger on social issues, they could point to little hard evidence in his record, and the federal appeals judge was able to parry questions about abortion and other emotive subjects in front of the senate.
Welcoming the vote, Arlen Specter, the Republican chairman of the senate judiciary committee, said: "To come away with 78 votes, considering where the senate was, in such contentious straits earlier this year, I think is really remarkable."
Mr Roberts will take his seat on Monday. Like his predecessor, he is viewed as a strict but pragmatic conservative.
Mr Bush's choice to fill the second court vacancy could be more controversial. The outgoing judge, Sandra Day O'Connor, is a moderate, and her replacement by an ideological conservative would tilt the court's balance sharply to the right. The Democrats have vowed to unite against a hardliner, and Mr Bush has to make his choice when his popularity rating is languishing at about 40 per cent after the fiasco of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and a constant flow of bad news from Iraq.
With Mr Roberts at the helm, justices will confront such matters as environmental protection, campaign finance law, voting rights, gay rights, abortion rights and workers' rights.
Sen Patrick Leahy of Vermont, ranking Democrat on the judiciary committee that held the confirmation hearing, voted for Mr Roberts, saying: "He is a man of integrity. I have taken him at his word that he does not have an ideological agenda and will be his own man. I hope that he will, and I trust that he will."