Roberts confirmed as chief justice

CNN.com :

Judge John Roberts was easily confirmed Thursday to be the 17th chief justice of the United States, winning Senate approval with a solid majority. He is expected to be sworn in to the post later in the day during a ceremony at the White House. He will be sworn in by the senior associate justice, John Paul Stevens. The 78-22 vote ended a nearly three-month roller coaster ride for the 50-year-old federal appeals judge.

Hardly surprising. NARAL et al will be disappointed that they only got 22 Democrats to oppose this nomination. I expect though that those Democrats that voted for Roberts will have a lot more moral authority to ensure a relatively moderate judge next then those that voted against him. It will be interesting to watch the Roberts court. I expect the biggest change we will see is decisions that are much more clear in establishing precedent. I think Roberts will try to avoid decisions like the seperation of church and state cases last spring that pretty much said you can display the 10 commandments unless you can, with no real rhyme or reason for when it is appropriate or not.