Roberts once clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist. He is thought of more as a Rehnquist conservative as opposed to a Scalia conservative. The former being more respectful in his views and the latter being much more fervent and forceful. There was also not one dissenting vote in the Senate confirming him for the D.C. Circuit. He is considered a conservative but has issued no major opinion on abortion and, as such, many hard-core conservatives fear that he may be not conservative enough. Roberts, however, argued as Deputy Solicitor General under Bush I that “[w]e continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled. [T]he Court’s conclusion in Roe that there is a Constitutional right to an abortion . . . finds no support in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution.”
Although he may not have many legal opinions, he has a body of work generated in his private practice and the work he did for the Reagan and first Bush administration. For Reagan, he opposed a congressional effort to make it easier for minorities to argue that their votes had been diluted under the Voting Rights Act. He has also written against Congress legislating to protect some endangered species. More can be found on the Slate.
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