Chief Justice John Roberts discusses Lincoln

Chief Justice John Roberts discussed the legal prowess of President Lincoln during a university lecture Friday and fended off an audience member who advanced the widely discredited theory that Barack Obama was not legally qualified to be president.

Roberts said Lincoln had such a finely developed sense of justice as a lawyer that he had trouble taking cases he did not believe in, and could not do his best work on such cases. This trait was well known among his fellow lawyers, Roberts said.

"He could not ignore his internal compass," said Roberts, who was nominated by President George W. Bush to lead the Supreme Court and took office in 2005.

Roberts also noted that Lincoln lost his only case before the nation's highest court, a complicated real estate dispute.

Roberts spoke before a packed house of some 1,200 people at the annual Bellwood Memorial Lecture Series at the University of Idaho.

At one point during the audience question period, Orly Taitz, a woman from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., said she had documents proving that President Obama was not born in the United States and thus could not be president. While audience members laughed, she said she had half a million signatures of people demanding the Supreme Court hear the matter.

Roberts cut her off by saying that if she had documents with her, she should give them to security officers. He also said he could not discuss the issue.

Earlier this month, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., threw out a lawsuit questioning Obama's citizenship, branding the case a waste of the court's time.

In responses to other questions, Roberts noted that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg considered former Chief Justice William Rehnquist the best boss she ever had.

"I haven't heard she has revised that assessment," Roberts said, drawing laughter.

Roberts also said judicial nominees should not be expected to provide detailed ideological information during the confirmation process.

Roberts said the process of appointing new justices has become polarized and politicized as senators try to pin down how a nominee might vote on particular issues.

He said that kind of questioning was inappropriate, as judges are expected to be impartial in hearing the cases that come before them.

This is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the University of Idaho School of Law, and Roberts focused his speech on Lincoln, whose 200th birthday is being celebrated this year.

Roberts noted that Lincoln loomed large in Idaho history, creating the territory of Idaho, appointing the first territorial governor, and remaining deeply interested in the development of the territory even as the Civil War raged.

Roberts said Lincoln spent 23 years as a lawyer, despite no law school education, and became one of the best in Illinois.

Law school students should develop the qualities that made Lincoln a great lawyer, which include being diligent, developing their public speaking skills, paying attention to details, discouraging litigation, being a peacemaker among parties and honest at all times, Roberts said.

He also noted that Lincoln wanted to be more than a lawyer, and sought public service.

"This College of Law will realize its full measure of greatness when the school and its graduates take advantage of opportunities to do more," Roberts said.