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" Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. spoke to his fellow members of the Federalist Society , a coalition of conservative lawyers and legal scholars who have gone from rebel outsiders to Washington insiders - - the group drew 1,500 people to its annual banquet and warranted appearances by administration leaders from Vice President Cheney on down.Roberts 's turn on the stage was the most complete , and it showed that his sure-footed performance in his confirmation hearings , where he left even senators opposed to his conservative philosophy aglow , was no fluke.He has a politician 's gift for appearing open while answering only the questions he wants to answer , along with an almost over-the-top humility about being , at 51 , the youngest chief justice since John Marshall , and he offers a reassuring middle ground between those worried about threats to judicial independence and those alarmed by activist judges.He provided a little something for everyone . " Wittes worries that " the increasingly partisan nature of Senate votes on nominees " such as Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr ., " probably imprints upon " newly seated justices " a stronger partisan identity than they had prior to nomination . Despite these setbacks , the ruling party 's candidate for president , Roh Moo Hyun , won the election in Dec ., 2002 . The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals , nevertheless , reaffirmed the death sentence , saying that if an error was made , it was harmless to the outcome of the jury 's decision.And so Smith v. Texas ( 05-11304 ) was back before the Supreme Court yesterday , with Smith 's advocates and others - - including four retired federal appeals court judges - - arguing that the state court ignored specific directions from the Supreme Court.As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it , it was as though the state court were saying , " Thanks , thanks , that 's very interesting advice , " but we're deciding it on different grounds.But the state appeared to have strong supporters in Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia.Scalia said the Texas court decided that , though the mitigating evidence should have been presented more straightforwardly , it was in the best position to decide that such evidence would not have affected the jury 's decision to sentence Smith to death . The process by which the nine justices decide which of the thousands of appeals they receive each year will be given the justices ' full consideration - - granted certiorari , in the court 's terminology - - is among the court 's most closely guarded procedures . Two hours of oral argument on a federal " partial birth " abortion ban at the Supreme Court yesterday showed that the justices are intensely focused on the procedure 's medical details and health implications - - but produced few clues as to how they might rule.As expected , the court 's four most liberal members , Justices John Paul Stevens , David H. Souter , Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer , sounded skeptical about the statute . " Allegations that the government has been arming or masterminding militias known as the janjaweed are absolutely false , " al-Mardi said.He said armed groups of mostly Arab tribesmen in the region were part of regular army forces , not militia , but conceded that " maybe other people misrepresent themselves by wearing police or army uniforms to commit crimes . The U.N. and others accuse the government of having countered local rebel groups by unleashing militias of Arab nomads known as janjaweed who are accused of atrocities against farmers from the region 's ethnic African tribes . " Stevens was joined in the dissent by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg , David H. Souter and Stephen G. Breyer.The case is Ayers v. Belmontes , 05-493.The court also announced yesterday that it was declining to review two highly publicized cases.Without comment , justices decided against hearing the appeal of Michael Skakel , the nephew of Ethel Kennedy 's who was convicted of beating to death his Greenwich , Conn ., neighbor Martha Moxley when the two were teenagers 31 years ago . " It does raise the salience and importance of the way sentences are handed out and what those sentences are , " Attorney General Jerry Brown said of the justices ' ruling .