Chief Justice Roberts taken to hospital after fall in Maine

07/30/2007

From the Associated Press | July 30, 2007


WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice John Roberts was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Maine today after a fall, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.

She said she did not know how he fell or what injuries he might have suffered.

The incident occurred around 2 p.m., said St. George Fire Chief Tim Polky. Port Clyde is part of the town of St. George.

Roberts was taken from his home on Hupper Island to the mainland on a private boat; from there he was transferred to an ambulance, Polky said.

"He was conscious and alert when they put him in the rescue (vehicle) and took him to Penobscot Bay Medical Center," Polky said. A spokesman at the Rockport hospital did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

Roberts has a summer home in Port Clyde, Maine. The spokeswoman said the chief justice, 52, was taken to the hospital as a precaution.

Named to the court by President Bush in 2005, Roberts has no known medical conditions. He is the youngest justice on a court in which the senior member, John Paul Stevens, is 87.

Roberts is the father of two young children.

He bought the home on Hupper Island off Port Clyde last year. Port Clyde is about 90 miles by car northeast of Portland, midway up the coast of Maine.

Roberts spent a couple of weeks in Europe in July, teaching a course in Vienna and attending a conference in Paris. He was at the court late last week