WASHINGTON — Legal arguments made by U.S. Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. in an important Hawai'i case will be featured Saturday on C-SPAN's "America and the Courts" show.

The one-hour program will air beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday on Oceanic channel 48.

President Bush nominated Roberts, a federal appellate judge, for the seat on the Supreme Court last month. His Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin Sept. 6 and will be aired live, also by C-SPAN.

Roberts, who has argued 39 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, represented Hawai'i in the Rice v. Cayetano case, which questioned the Hawaiian constitutional provision that limited to qualified Hawaiians the right to vote for trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Roberts, who argued the case on Oct. 6, 1999, lost the case in a 7-2 decision when the court ruled that all voters in Hawai'i, including non-Hawaiians, must be allowed to help choose the trustees.

Saturday's "America and the Courts" show also will focus on Roberts' arguments in 1999 for the National Collegiate Athletic Association in a case that questioned whether the association could be held liable for treating female athletes differently from male athletes because it collected dues from universities that get federal money.

Roberts, who was an attorney with the Washington, D.C., law firm Hogan and Hartson at the time, won that case in a unanimous decision when the court decided that the dues were not enough to subject the NCAA to the law.

The "America and the Courts" show is focusing all this month on Roberts in advance of the confirmation hearings. The program will be archived at www.c-span.org for later viewing and will be simulcast on C-SPAN Radio.