next, john roberts discusses the magna carta on its 800th anniversary. he reflects on the need for the magna carta. it's significance today. he spoke at the american bar association's annual meeting. >> the honorable john g roberts, jr. is the 17th and current chief justice of the united states. and has served since 2005 having been appointed by president george w. bush. chief justice roberts attended harvard college and harvard law school where he was managing editor of the "harvard law review." he served as a law clerk for henry friendly and justice rehnquist before taking a position in the attorney general's office during the reagan administration. he went on to serve the reagan administration and the george

h.w. bush administration in the department of justice and the office of white house counsel before spending 14 years in private practice. during this time, he argued 39 cases before the supreme court. it is my pleasure to welcome the honorable john g. roberts, jr., chief justice of the united states. [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you.

thank you very much. i appreciate that. thank you. thank you very much for that very warm welcome. i am very pleased that the american bar association has invited me to speak on the occasion of the commencement of its year long celebration of the significance of magna carta's eighth centennial. from now until next august, the association will celebrate the meaning and significance of magna carta, both in the united states and in england. the aba will literally build on the past by restoring and rededicating a monument it built in 1957 at runnymede where king john sealed the charter. i and other members of the judiciary will be following those events closely and we appreciate your association's commitment to increase public awareness of magna carta. do not underestimate the extent

of that challenge. a few months ago, a group of tourists were visiting runnymede. the guide asked if there were any questions. one fellow raised his hand and asked when was magna carta signed? 1215, answered the tour guide. the fellow turned to his wife and said, "see, i told you we should not have stopped for lunch. we just missed it." you try coming up with a magna carta joke. this year marks a number of other significant anniversaries. 50 years ago, congress passed the civil rights act. 70 years ago, allied forces stormed normandy to restore liberty to europe. 200 years ago, a very prominent

lawyer and supreme court advocate francis scott key witnessing the battle of fort mchenry penned "the star spangle banner." 225 years ago, our constitution first took effect. each of these anniversaries commemorate remarkable individuals pursuing lofty objectives beyond their own interests. in the case of magna carta, we commemorate something quite different. historians have debated for centuries the significance of the events at runnymede, but one thing seems clear. the individuals who met there were pursuing their own narrow interest rather than an heroic cause. beyond themselves the basic story which began long before the event at runnymede has been recounted by louis auto burg. he was a moving force behind the monument erected at runnymede. he wrote a good account in the

1957 issues of the "aba journal." i will give a brief overview of the history. everything in england seems to begin with william the conqueror who was william the wily administrator as well. after defeating king harold, william put in place his own feudal bureaucracy rewarding trusted supporters with fiefdoms in exchange for their loyalty and for providing men and money to support his kingdom. now, as power passed through several generations through strong leaders such as henry ii and richard the lion heart, to weaker ones such as king john, the baron grew restless when the archbishop of canterbury died, king johns.

insisted on choosing his successor which put him at odds with the pope. that battle of wills not only resulted in john's excommunication because damage to the english church. in the ensuing years, john tax to the barons and seized church property to gain leverage in his dispute with the pope. now, later on, when john finally reached an agreement with the holy see and accepted the pope's appointment of stephen langton as archbishop, he further alienated the variance by keeping those unpopular policies in place. it reached crisis when the barons refused to support john's preparations for war with france. neither the archbishop nor the barons were duped by king john's pledged to conduct a crusade on behalf of the church. when lankton and the barons united in opposition to john, john had no choice but to hear their demands. the barons spelled out those

demands in a statement that the -- that recited what they took to be there right under the feudal system and customs. in june, 1215, at runnymede, king jon attached to sealed to that statement now known as magna carta. the barons in turn pledged their fealty to the king. that event is depicted in the supreme court on the frieze that runs across the top of our courtroom. the next time you're in washington, you can pick it out. it is on the left side toward the back. and you will see that the sculptor has done a very good job of capturing an unhappy expression on king john's face. now, at bottom, magna carta was the result of a feudal quarrel for compromise. barons get what they can get, and the king kept what he could keep.

the magna carta of 1215 spoke to you are interested in is a product of its era. after first announcing the freedom of the church, the document recites feudal and customary rights for marriage and debts and property and so on. some of those provisions suggest important social and economic changes. for example, what we now number at chapter eight providing that no widow should be compelled to marry so long as she has the mind to live without a husband. other provisions reflect the prejudices of the time such as those that single out jews for discriminatory treatment. but let me talk about magna carta today. we are not celebrating the antiquated relics of a time long past. instead, we are referring to a small collection of provisions that express kernels of

transcendent americans. although the barons were preserving their own interests, they nevertheless tried to bolster their cause with statements of principle that spoke to broader issues of governance such as due process, separation of powers, freedom from arbitrary action, and the elements of a fair trial. most famous of course is chapter 39, which provides that no freeman man shall be taken or imprisoned or deceased of any freehold or liberties except by bill legal judgment of his peers or the law. the provision is instantly recognizable as the seed for our modern concept of due process. likewise, chapters 12 and 14 which require consent of the council before taxes may be imposed contain a hint of the principle of separation of power. those provisions distributed power on the classes of persons,

the barons of the king, rather than on components of government. but they speak to the dangers of concentrated authority. chapter 23, which forbids the king from ordering towns or freemen from constructing bridges across rivers, may seem quaint, but it touches on the printable that the government may not impose burdens arbitrarily on the few. and chapter 20's provisions providing the criminal penalties must be assessed by local judgment and be proportional to the crime contain rudiments of our own eighth amendment protections. the magna carta of 1215, of course, contains only suggestions of what we now regard as fundamental freedoms. but perhaps reflecting archbishop lankton's learning and desire to give dignity to

the barons' cause some of the plane which speaks beyond its times. those times, however, quickly reasserted themselves and magna carta of 1215 was effectively anulled a few months after it was sealed by pope innocent iii. he came to the aid of the beleaguered king who had, after all, promised to take up the crusaders cross. now, in retrospect, the story of the emergence of demise of the 1215 document is the usual tale of political opportunism, selfish interests, and hubris raw to a close in this case by king john's death of dysentery in 1216. yet we mark the anniversary and celebrate it for a year. i think we do so for the same reason that we often memorialize the groundbreaking of a major public building or monument. whether king john and the barons knew it or not, the events of 800 years ago marked the commencement of a major undertaking in human history.

we mark the 800th anniversary of magna carta because it laid the foundation for the ascent of liberty. we celebrate not so much what happened 8 centuries ago as what has transpired since that time. that progress in no sense universal and in no sense a reversible, has been aided in part by the members of our profession who recognize the enduring principles embedded in magna carta and built out from that foundation. a few years ago, a theatre group became famous for its ability to perform the complete works of william shakespeare in 60 minutes. that requires some abridgment. for example, the troops treatment of hamlet basically amounted to danish king is murder, prince feigns insanity, everybody dies. given the time constraints, my description of magna carta's finegan will also --

significance will also omit details. i will point out three ways magna carta has been invoked to sustain the progress of free societies that remains relevant today. first, magna carta, especially in its early years, was invoked to foster government unity in times of crisis. when the 9-year-old henry iii succeeded john, his guardians reissued magna carta to consolidate the support of the barons. when henry iii reach majority, he reissued again to galvanize the support of the barons for yet another war with france. edward i, likewise, reconfirmed magna carta in 1297 in significant measure to get the barons on his side in his effort to conquer the scots. now, before magna carta, english

kings maintained loyalty through feudal fear and favor. after the meeting at runnymede, a new element was added to the equation. king john's successors could invoke magna carta. when they reconfirmed the charter further short-term purposes, they were, whether they like it or not, embedding the rule of law as a unifying force in english society. this apart -- the responsibility to support the king carried with it the rights the king must respect. second, magna carta contributed to the rise of representative government. the english kings met with barons before king john's meeting at runnymede. but magna carta signifed an enlarged role for the barons.

that role focused on issues of taxation but extended to other issues of public concern. during the reigns of henry iii and edward i, those councils coalesced into parliament in which nights and burgesses and bishops and eric participated in the deliberations. during the tudor era, when royalty and parliament found common ground, magna carta's influence became less visible, at least as a matter of public law.

but magna carta once again came to the fore with the stewart monarch when james i and charles i imposed taxes without the approval of parliament, the members saw to revive what benderman -- what benjamin -- called the good ole decrepit rule of magna carta. to justify parliament opposition to the royal claims. he characterized magna carta as stating the in voluble rights of its -- he declared magna carta is such a fellow, he will have no sovereign. that is an exaggeration to the events at runnymede. the effect, cokee promoted magna carta as to marking constitutional imitations of the power of the king. his advocacy laid the groundwork for the habeas corpus act and the endless bill of rights. so, in that sense, magna carta, as reimagined by cokee, steered history down the path towards constitutional democracy. but magna carta had a third effect that has special resonance in boston. it kindled america's own declaration of independence. the american colonists embraced coke's conception of magna

carta. the source of coke's influence is easy to discern. he reportedly helped draft the virginia colonial charter and his writing strongly influenced william penn's vision of good government. foreign portly, his treatises on the law became standard colonial reference books. the colonists did not have much choice in terms of where to look for their law. coke's was the most popular source. john rutledge, the supreme court's second supreme court justice, called coke's is to choose the foundations of our law. jefferson wrote to madison that there was never profound or learning english liberties.

as an aside, when the young jefferson was actually studying coke in 1762, he wrote, "i wish the devil had old coke, because am sure i was never so tired of an old scoundrel in my life." in any case, with coke came a reverence for his conception of magna carta. and american settlers incorporated elements of the great charter into colonial law. when they revolted against george iii, they did not view their causes a fight for novel freedoms. but rather, one to preserve liberties they traced to magna carta. now, here with within boston's city limits, the colonialists invoked magna carta's guarantees in response to george iii's injustices. the massachusetts assembly declared the stamp act illegally because it was against magna carta and the natural rights of englishmen, and therefore, according to lord coke, null and void. john adams asserted that britain's restrictions on the

jurisdiction of colonial courts violated the great charter. fellow bostonians james otis and samuel adams employed similar reasoning to challenge the writs of assistance and the townsend act. magna carta became a banner for rallying opposition to british rule. massachusetts' first state seal depicts the militia man with a sword in his right hand and a copy of magna carta in his left. there is no small irony in the fact that magna carta, a document that coke viewed as the right of englishmen, would become a cornerstone in our quest for freedom from british rule. in now, from our perspective today, 800 years later, we can see that magna carta originally resulted squabble between a king and selfish barons.

eyes fixed on their own interests. but magna carta became a building block in developing the notion of a government bound by the rule of rule, a structure that defined limits on the exercise of power and allow those without power to assert demand justice. what professor dick howard described as "the road from from runnymede" has not been smooth. what is important is that the core of civil justice remain relevant and worth defending. when the aba rededicates its monument to magna carta next june, it will symbolic renew its own commitment to that defense. magna carta's history teaches that no generation is spared as challenges. we live in an era in which partisan divides within our political branches have shaken

public faith in government across the board. we on the bench can old republic confidence by exercising independent judgment to reach sound decisions carefully explained to the best of our abilities. we rely on the bar's skill, professionalism, and hard work to help us carry out that function. i hoped that was the case when i was practicing law. now, on the other side of the bench, i know it to be true. we in the judiciary must also look to the bar for assistance in maintaining the publics confidence in the integrity of our legal system. lawyers have often anticipated in partisan clinical disputes

throughout our history to great beneficial effect. but lawyers fulfill their professional calling to its fullest extent when they rise above particular partisan debates and participate as problem solvers, whether through the aba's committees, pro bono work, public service, or simply by helping the public understand the nature of the role courts play. a role distinct from that of the political branches. an 800-year commemoration invites us to take a long view. our american experiment has not reached 1/3 the age of magna carta, but we have given magna carta's core concepts meaning in a new way. independent courts assured accountability to the law, a fulfilling the ideal that no person, no matter how -- is above the law. now, i encourage you as officers of the course to set your sights on the far horizon and ensure that our legal profession continues to advance that ideal.

thank you again for inviting me here today and thank you for your continued service for the legal community. thanks very much. >> follow us on twitter for more information on our schedule and upcoming programs. all weekend long, american history tv is joining our charter cable partners to shyam at, wyoming. to learn more about the cities on our tour, you can visit c-span.org. looked ate with our the history of cheyenne. is american history tv on c-span three. by september when the

newspapers started, they had about 300 people living here. when the railroad arrived they had 3000 people. got the name it magic city. we are currently in the cheyenne depot building. it it was constructed in 1886 and 1887. a portion of the west wing has been converted to a railroad museum up. it is a historic structure in cheyenne. ofis the crown jewel cheyenne as a landmark. the railroad act was signed by