Man who swore in Obama gives lecture at college summer school

THE man who swore in Barack Obama as United States president – twice – earlier this year has become the latest major American figure to spend time at the National University of Ireland Galway. Chief Justice John G Roberts holds the most senior legal position in the US, but has taken time to teach students at a summer school hosted by the college this month.

Veteran actor Martin Sheen spent a semester studying for an arts degree at NUIG in 2006, shortly after finishing his seven-year term as US president Josiah Bartlet in TV series The West Wing.

Chief Justice Roberts has been doing the lecturing himself since last week, giving 56 students from law schools across America an insight into the history of the US Supreme Court and former holders of his position. His wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, has ancestral roots in Kerry and Fermanagh, and 2007 financial disclosures showed he holds a one-eighth interest (valued at less than $15,000) in a cottage in Knocklong, Co Limerick.

Another Supreme Court member, Mr Justice Antonin Scalia, taught last year at the New England Law Summer School. The event has been organised for US students by the Boston-based law school for the past eight years, with half the courses taught by American law professors or senior legal figures and the others by lecturers from NUIG's Irish Centre for Human Rights.

"We're really privileged to have such a high-profile person as the US Chief Justice on campus, but the main credit is with the contacts of the New England School of Law," said Dr Ray Murphy, senior lecturer at the centre.

Chief Justice Roberts was watched by millions around the world on Mr Obama's inauguration day in Washington last January, but the pair had to repeat the swearing-in ceremony later inside the White House because he had prompted the incoming president with the wrong words for the oath.

He was appointed to the job by President George W Bush in 2005.

He met with Ireland's Chief Justice John Murray at a ceremony at NUIG to celebrate his attendance. Chief Justice Roberts is staying in a private rented house under strict security during his time in Galway.

The nine-member US Supreme Court has one of the most highly analysed jobs in international legal circles and its judgments on sensitive issues such as abortion, capital punishment and environmental law are the subject of regular debate.