Mr. Roberts
Mr. Roberts: he's a republican. I wasn't expecting President Bush to
put Noam Chomsky's name forward so I'm not surprised by this
development. There is no such thing as a stealth nominee. Try as
they might to fly him that way. No one is player enough to be given the
nod for the Supreme Court without letting his views and services be
known and useful to someone. Justice Souter was an anomaly, but he was
not the leading choice, perhaps not even second, it's likely he was
never vetted in detail. How people grow as individuals when they get a
seat on the court is not knowable, but their initial positions are.
The administration picked someone who was a Washington
insider, known professionally but not widely. Still, someone whose
bonafides and political PH are certifiable quantities. The more we get
to know him the more conservative he will appear because that is who he
is:
Roberts's Rules.
Strange logic. Nina Totenberg had a segment on NPR consisting of sound bytes of his various appearances before the Court;
NPR : Looking at Roberts' Record Before the Court.
In one he argued against a gender bias case involving a abortion clinic
blockade, because they denied access to everyone there was no
class-based
animus, this he trumpeted. But, it is not men they're trying to keep
out of the clinic is it? The point he made so triumphantly is
absolutely vacant. It is trite and betrays arrogance. I don't like the
idea of abortion. At the same time I am aware the central conflict in
the issue is not the horror of third trimester abortions or identifying
the miraculous moment of pregnancy. Culture of life is an obscurist's
slogan, there is never any complete life that enters the concern of
the anti-abortionist. It is about control of reproduction. It is
about control of the things that women's bodies do, that men's bodies
cannot do. The rights women have concerning their bodies. There is no
truly comparable dissipation of the the rights men hold over their
bodies in our Law. This points back equally to the uniqueness of
reproduction and uniqueness of the Laws Roe v. Wade would be overturned
to achieve. There shouldn't be any doubt that he will vote to overturn
Roe V. Wade when that time comes, understand that the administration
has no doubts there.They were never going to nominate anyone they had
any doubts about.
Documents have been released not without some tugging Quarrel Brewing Over Judge Roberts Memos - New York Times
showing Judge Roberts to be a strong junior voice in the Reagan
administration
Documents Show Roberts Influence In Reagan Era. Memos and position papers marking advocacy of Judicial
restraint argument as tactic
. Advocacy of executive supremacy. Is it
advocacy or ideology when one speaks of "the constitution as it should
be read?" Some memos contain marginalia outlining a Justice, and
abortion as demonstrating a certain unsuitability on the bench or for
the concept of Judicial review at all (only with the right Judges).
Still he has told all the Senators on his debutante dance card he will not
be an ideologue Justice. It should be recognized a statement like
that means nothing. It should also be recognized from these
documents, that at that point in his life he certainly was a right wing
ideologue Files From 80's Lay Out Stances of Bush Nominee - New York Times. Ah, but those were heady and revolutionary times. More
pertinent may be his work in later years in the White House Counsel's
office for Reagan and the elder Bush administration
Democrats Want More Documents on Roberts. His handlers have
signaled strongly that we won't be seeing any of that.
Having said all this I don't see that he should be strenuously
opposed. He does not have the lack of humor or ingenuinely assumed
false humor of the monomanically dangerous. The hearing should be thorough , thorough enough
that no one votes for they know not what. His relationship to the
Federalist Society has been handled in an unforthcoming and unbecoming fashion. Beyond that and other similar issues, vote and be done with it.
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