The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law announced today that Sally M. Rider, administrative assistant to Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., has been named director of The William H. Rehnquist Center on the Constitutional Structures of Government, a nonpartisan national research center being established by the University to honor the legacy of the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.

Rider, 48, served for five years as Chief Justice Rehnquist's administrative assistant and has served in the same capacity for Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., since his appointment to the Court on September 29, 2005. As the administrative assistant to the Chief Justice, Rider has served as the Court's chief of staff and has assisted the Chief Justice in his overall management of the Court and with his other responsibilities as head of the Third Branch of government. Chief Justice Roberts said of Rider's selection, "Over the past term, Sally Rider's assistance has been invaluable with respect to administrative and management issues within the Court and throughout the federal judiciary as a whole, as well as with respect to relations with the other branches of the federal government, the state courts, and the judiciaries of other nations. Sally handled the broadest range of important responsibilities with sterling efficiency and gracious aplomb. I applaud the Rehnquist Center on a perfect choice for director. Sally will be greatly missed at the Court and throughout the federal judiciary, but I take comfort in the fact that her talents and energies will be devoted to making the Rehnquist Center a vital and vibrant memorial worthy of its namesake."

The Rehnquist Center will be devoted to nonpartisan academic research, policy analysis, national and international judicial exchange, and educational outreach. Rider will assume her duties as director of the Rehnquist Center in September, 2006. The Rehnquist Center is slated to open in Tucson in the fall of 2007.

Rider served as staff counsel to the United States House of Representatives Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs from 1986 to 1987. From 1987 to 1990 she was a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. She was an assistant United States attorney in the District of Columbia from 1990 to 1995 and from 1995 to 1998 she was an attorney adviser and then deputy assistant legal adviser at the Department of State. Prior to working for the Chief Justice, Rider was deputy chief of the Civil Division in the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Rider received a B.A. from the University of Arizona, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, with high distinction, in 1980. She received her J.D. with high distinction in 1986 from the University of Arizona College of Law.

Rider is executive director of the Supreme Court Fellows Program and serves on the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act Study Committee, a committee appointed by Chief Justice Rehnquist that is evaluating how the federal judicial system is dealing with judicial misbehavior and disability.