A Young Roberts' Resignation Letter

Judge Roberts resigned from the President Reagan White House in 1986. After readings several articles like this one on Roberts counsel and advice back then, I think Reagan had a star in the making (which we will see shining brightly soon I hope). Here is a great example of his insight.

In the latest documents, Mr. Roberts - then in his late 20's and early 30's - reflects a keen awareness of the eyes of history that would someday fall upon him and his colleagues. In a Sept. 9, 1985, memorandum, he warned of the potentially chilling effect on White House staff deliberations of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, the post-Watergate law making internal White House memorandums government property and requiring their release 12 years after an administration's end.

"Twelve years is a brief lifetime in public life," Mr. Roberts wrote. "Many of the personalities candidly discussed in sensitive White House memoranda, and certainly many of the authors of the memoranda, will be active 12 years from now."

How very prophetic.

Here is a summary of his resignation letter.

Mr. Roberts submitted his resignation from the White House counsel's office on April 10, 1986, with a letter addressed to President Reagan. He stated that it had been "a singular privilege, honor and delight" to serve in the administration over the previous five years, first as a special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith, and then for four years as a junior lawyer in the White House counsel's office.

"I know you receive many letters like this, and I recognize that over time they must come to seem fairly routine," he wrote to Mr. Reagan. "Please understand, however, that my years in your service will always be very special to me. The inspiration you have given me will burn brightly in my heart long after I have left the lights of the White House behind."

If I were dictator, I mean President, I would hope to have as able counsel.