http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/washington/index.ssf?/base/politics-1/112532844374063.xml&storylist=washingtonRoberts pushed for Reagan policies
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee John Roberts pushed the Reagan-era Justice Department to get its conservative policies enacted into law to make it more difficult for future presidents to abrogate them, documents showed Monday.
Roberts, who was an assistant to Attorney General William French Smith in 1982, co-wrote a memo to the attorney general noting that many of the department's conservative policies, including decisions not to seek busing or hiring quotas, "could be instantly reversed when a new administration took office."
"In certain areas — busing and quotas, for example — it makes eminent sense to pursue legislation to guarantee that our policies cannot be easily undone," said Roberts in a March 15, 1982 memo he co-wrote with fellow special assistant Carolyn Kuhl.
The memo was revealed Monday as the National Archives released more of Roberts' working documents from his time as a special assistant to the attorney general from 1981-1982. Roberts, nominated by President Bush to succeed the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, served as an assistant to the White House counsel and the attorney general under President Reagan and deputy solicitor general under the first President Bush.