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John McCain is getting catcalls for his speech on Tuesday declaring his preference for Supreme Court Justices in the mold of John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

Republican John McCain is castigating Democrat Barack Obama for voting against John Roberts as Supreme Court chief justice. McCain offered an olive branch to the Christian right in a speech about the kind of judges he would nominate planned for Tuesday at Wake Forest University. The far right has been deeply suspicious of McCain, the expected GOP presidential nominee, because he has clashed with its leaders and worked against them on issues like campaign finance reform. McCain promised to appoint judges who, in the mold of Roberts and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, are likely to limit the reach of...

Give Barack Obama this: he performed a lot better on Fox News Sunday today than he did in the debate on April 16th. He stammered less when challenged, allowed his considerable personal warmth to surface, and kept his annoyance and anger in check. On the other hand, he offered about the same level of commitment to his answers as he did in Philadelphia, and gave at least a couple of whoppers.One of the more interesting answers came in regards to Jeremiah Wright. He called Wright a “legitimate” campaign issue, which will seem rather shocking to the New York Times, the...

The conservosphere is up in arms over John Fund's report in the Wall Street Journal that John McCain would be squishy on conservative appointments to the Supreme Court: More recently, Mr. McCain has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court. But he indicated he might draw the line on a Samuel Alito, because "he wore his conservatism on his sleeve." Over at The Corner, Kathryn Jean Lopez has Fund's back: For what it's worth, I've been told the same thing John F. reported — that at a private...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A tragedy might have been averted near the United States Capitol on Friday afternoon, where a man was arrested at gunpoint while carrying a shotgun and a backpack containing a samurai sword. And it now appears that he is a Utah resident with a long criminal history. The man, identified by Washington, D.C. CBS affiliate WUSA-TV as Michael S. Gorbey, was spotted about a block away from the U.S. Capitol, near the Russell and Dirksen Senate office buildings at approximately 1:00 p.m. Capitol police drew their weapons after spotting the man and forced him to surrender. Gorbey...

WASHINGTON - Fatherhood and ambition. In Fred Thompson's life, they rise and fall together, a recurring couplet in the nostalgic story of a Tennessee fella who's guided more by life's surprises and others' expectations than he is by any master plan. Consider: * The small-town jock called "Freddie" and "Moose," who, at 17, upon getting his high school girlfriend pregnant, married her, heeded her politically connected family and made something of himself. * The divorced U.S. senator, lawyer, lobbyist and actor who dropped out of politics when one of his three grown children died from a prescription drug overdose. *...

Yesterday, Senator Fred Thompson issued a statement on the Supreme Court's decision to grant certiorari in the District of Columbia gun ban case. It reads, in part: I’ve always understood the Second Amendment to mean what it says – it guarantees a citizen the right to “keep and bear” firearms, and that’s why I’ve been supportive of the National Rifle Association’s efforts to have the DC law overturned. In general, lawful gun ownership is a pretty simple matter. The Founders established gun-owner rights so that citizens would possess and be able to exercise the universal right of self-defense. Guns enable...

In what may turn out to be the most important Second Amendment ruling since 1939’s hideously misinterpreted Miller - and maybe the most important ruling on the Amendment in American history, the Supreme Court has granted cert to Parker v. D.C. and will be taking up the case in this session. Natch, Glenn Reynolds has tonsalinks. My first take (I have to admit I’m shaking in my boots at the negative possibilities here, given that I thought the SCOTUS would dodge this one) is that the Court will find an individual right, but do so in such a way that...

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 5 /Standard Newswire/ -- Today the Fred Thompson campaign announced the addition of Shannon Royce, an experienced social conservative coalitions director and former Executive Director of The Arlington Group, who will be joining the Thompson Campaign to serve as Grassroots and Special Projects Director. Shannon Royce most recently served as Executive Director of the Arlington Group where she managed a coalition of over 70 organizations advocating on numerous pro-family initiatives. In that capacity, she coordinated coalition efforts on behalf of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. A former Legislative Assistant to Senator Slade Gorton and...

It is an honor and privilege to live in the United States, the greatest country in the world. Yet for all its blessings, American society is beset by serious problems, including jihadists seeking weapons of destruction who want to create a world caliphate; a violent, sexually loaded popular culture that targets our children; unelected judges who ignore the Constitution and abuse their powers; and a disrespect for human life that has resulted in tens of millions of abortions. It is possible to become demoralized and conclude that everything is hopeless, and that we should withdraw from the political and cultural...

After calling John G. Roberts Jr. two years ago last month to ask him to serve on the Supreme Court, President Bush hung up and told aides, "I just offered the job to a great, smart, 50-year-old lawyer." The emphasis, of course, was on "50-year-old" -- Bush's way of saying he had just made a choice that would help shape the Supreme Court for three or four decades to come. Or so he thought. Roberts's seizure during a Maine vacation this week may not mean anything in terms of his longevity on the court but it certainly offered a reminder...

WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice John Roberts checked himself out of a Maine hospital Tuesday after a medical emergency that illuminates the potential fragility of the Supreme Court. One day after suffering a still-unexplained seizure, Roberts returned to his summer vacation home on remote Hupper Island and told President Bush there was no cause for alarm. "It was a brief conversation, but one where the chief justice reassured the president that, in fact, he was doing fine," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. But with four of the court's nine justices over the age of 70, and with the 52-year-old Roberts'...

Despite his quick recovery from the seizure he suffered on Monday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. faces a complex diagnosis and a difficult decision. Because the seizure was his second — he had a similar one in 1993 — he meets the criteria for epilepsy, and he and his doctors will have to decide whether he should take medication to prevent further seizures, said neurologists not involved in his care. (Neither the chief justice nor his doctors would comment yesterday.) The decision will involve weighing the risk of more seizures against the risk of side effects from the drugs....

WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. today left the hospital in Maine where he was treated for a seizure and fall after telling President Bush by phone today that he was recovering nicely. Roberts, 52, walked vigorously out of Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine, where he had stayed overnight. Medical officials said they could find no cause for the seizure and expressed no particular alarm over it. Roberts went through a similar episode in 1993. Bush called Roberts while the chief justice was still in the hospital. "The chief justice assured him that he was doing...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- Two Supreme Court justices have had cancer. Another has a stent to keep an artery open. Now the chief justice has suffered his second unexplained seizure in 14 years. Like society at large, the court lives with health issues large and small, letting the justices themselves decide whether and how to continue their work. In an institution that zealously guards the justices' privacy, how much to tell the public also gets decided on a case by case basis. "There is quite a long history of illnesses, especially among older members of the court over the years and...

Chief Justice Assures Bush He's OK Roberts Could Be Released Today POSTED: 3:29 pm EDT July 30, 2007 UPDATED: 10:05 am EDT July 31, 2007 ROCKPORT, Maine -- Chief Justice John Roberts told President George W. Bush Tuesday he was doing well after sustaining a seizure at his Maine vacation home, the White House said. Bush called Roberts Tuesday morning, the White House said.. "The chief justice assured him that he was doing fine," White House press secretary Tony Snow said. "The president was reassured." Roberts "sounded like he was in great spirits," Snow said, relaying details of the phone...

From the Book of Common Prayer, 1928.A Prayer for Recovery. O GOD of heavenly powers, who, by the might of thy command, drivest away from men’s bodies all sickness and all infirmity; Be present in thy goodness with this thy servant JOHN, that his weakness may be banished and his strength recalled; that his health being thereupon restored, he may bless thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. A Prayer for Healing. O ALMIGHTY God, who art the giver of all health, and the aid of them that turn to thee for succour; We entreat thy strength and...

Leftists talk constantly of their own "compassion" but you can always count on them to express glee whenever a prominent conservative or religious person dies or is injured. It's almost like clockwork. "Humor" blog Wonkette.com had this to say about the Monday news that U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts had a minor seizure: Chief Justice John Roberts has died in his summer home in Maine. No, not really, but we know you have your fingers crossed. To get an idea of just how full of hate and ill humor Wonkette has become, realize this: the moonbats at Democratic Underground...

The moonbats are celebrating Robert's fall over at DU. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2935326

WASHINGTON - Chief Justice John Roberts suffered a seizure at his summer home in Maine on Monday, causing a fall that resulted in minor scrapes, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. He will remain in a hospital in Maine overnight. "It's my understanding he's fully recovered, said Christopher Burke, a spokesman for Penobscot Bay Medical Center, where Roberts was taken. Roberts, 52, was taken by ambulance to the medical center, where he underwent a "thorough neurological evaluation, which revealed no cause for concern," Arberg said in a statement. Roberts had a similar episode in 1993, she said. Doctors called Monday's...

WASHINGTON - Chief Justice John Roberts was taken to a hospital in Maine on Monday after falling while on vacation, the Supreme Court told NBC News. Roberts, 52, fell at his summer home between 2 and 3 p.m. ET off Port Clyde. The court said he was taken to a hospital as a precaution. An emergency medical technician said Roberts was conscious and alert during the ambulance ride, NBC News' Pete Williams reported. Story continues below ↓ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- advertisement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said she did not know how he fell or what injuries he might have suffered.

Just heard it on John Gibson's Big Story. I hope I'm wrong but that's how I heard it.

<p>Justice Roberts had a fall, taken to hospital. NO other details as of yet.</p>

Chief Justice John Roberts was taken by ambulance to a hospital on Monday after a fall on a dock near his summer home in Maine. Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said she did not know how he fell or what injuries he might have suffered. She said he was taken to the hospital as a precaution. Roberts, 52, bought a home last year in Port Clyde on Maine's Hupper Island. Port Clyde, which is part of the town of St. George, is about 90 miles by car northeast of Portland, midway up the coast of Maine. The incident occurred around...

Supreme Court: The latest 5-4 rulings of the Roberts Court illustrate just how far right the country's highest judicial authority has gone. History will credit President Bush as the one who tipped the balance. In a single sentence, Chief Justice John Roberts this week may have given America a glimpse into the heart of the high court bearing his name. In ruling Thursday that integration plans in public schools in Louisville, Ky, and Seattle are unconstitutional, he declared: "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

The next U.S. president could reshape the Supreme Court, where the two oldest members are liberals and volatile decisions like abortion now hinge on a single swing vote. The possible sea change has already surfaced 18 months before the November 2008 election and could develop into a major campaign issue for Democrats who want to move the court to the left and Republicans who hope to plant it firmly in the conservative camp. The U.S. high court is now evenly split between conservative and liberal justices, who have been divided by 5-4 votes on abortion rights, the death penalty and...

In a pointed dissent from decisions overturning death sentences for two Texas inmates, Roberts accused Stevens of engaging in revisionist history......... Roberts concluded his 16-page dissent on a sarcastic note, at odds with his amiable image. "Still, perhaps there is no reason to be unduly glum," Roberts said, taking direct aim at Stevens. "After all, today the author of a dissent issued in 1988 writes two majority opinions concluding that the views established in that dissent actually represented 'clearly established' federal law at that time. So there is hope yet for the views expressed in this dissent." "Encouraged by the...

It was buried in the avalanche of coverage of the horrible shootings at Virginia Tech. But the Supreme Court's partial-birth ruling will likely have a much bigger impact on Campaign. The human toll is unfathomable. And the heartfelt debate triggered by the slaughter at Virginia Tech—over why America allows such easy access to guns, and how best to determine when a troubled student might turn into a psychopath—will rage on for years. But as a political matter, the killings in Blacksburg, Va., will likely have little impact—on the presidential campaign of 2008, at least. That race will, however, be affected...

After the Supreme Court upheld the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said at a news conference: "I would only say that this isn't the only decision that a lot of us wish that [Justice Samuel] Alito weren't there and [former justice Sandra Day] O'Connor were there." Does that mean Reid was repudiating his 2003 Senate vote in favor of the bill? No, he told me Thursday, he was talking about other decisions by Alito. Reid, an effective legislator and canny politician, reflects a dilemma on abortion among Democrats, currently flying high against dispirited...

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday told students and faculty at the Northwestern University School of Law that he believes the high court functions best when justices focus narrowly on the case at hand. Justices run great risks when they go beyond the specifics of the case and attempt to set public policy, said Roberts, a strict constructionist confirmed in his post in September 2005. "Judges should act like judges, not like statesmen," Roberts said in response to a student question following a lecture at the university. The talk concluded the first of Roberts' two days as Howard...

THE Supreme Court, having decided only four cases since the term began in October, has not exactly been living in the fast lane. But the pace is about to pick up. The coming months will be a testing time for the young Roberts court, including decisions due by early summer on abortion, school integration and environmental policy, with an unusually large emphasis on cases of significance to the business community.Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has spoken often of the virtues of a court that speaks modestly and unanimously. Those goals may well prove elusive. The court’s conservative bloc reached...

Pay for federal judges is so inadequate that it threatens to undermine the judiciary's independence, Chief Justice John Roberts says in a year-end report critical of Congress. Issuing an eight-page message devoted exclusively to salaries, Roberts says the 678 full-time U.S. District Court judges, the backbone of the federal judiciary, are paid about half that of deans and senior law professors at top schools. In the 1950s, 65 percent of U.S. District Court judges came from the practicing bar and 35 percent came from the public sector. Today the situation is reversed, Roberts said, with 60 percent from the public...

I've got nothing more to add, but the 'birdie' has not steered me wrong yet. I post what I was told for discussions sake, if the Mods dont want it, they know what to do with it.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court has shown a surprising degree of unanimity and harmony since Chief Justice John Roberts took over last fall. But recent signs of tension and a rush to finish the court's work by month's end could fray the justices' tenuous show of unity. "I feel at this point like the fellow who jumped off the Empire State Building, passed the 50th floor and said, 'So far, so good,'" Roberts said recently to a group of lawyers. "But the hard part is coming up." The "hard part" will include issuing rulings in about 31 cases dealing...

Supreme Court: 9-0 is better than 5-4 Can the chief justice conquer the court's divide by aiming for unanimous rulings instead of swing-voting for the fences? By Cass R. Sunstein, CASS R. SUNSTEIN teaches at the University of Chicago Law School. May 25, 2006 THE SUPREME COURT regularly has to choose between issuing narrow rulings and issuing broader ones... (snip) Last week, when Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. delivered his first commencement address, at Georgetown University Law Center, he offered an original, substantive and unambiguous defense of narrow, minimalist rulings. Roberts began by arguing in favor of unanimous or...

WASHINGTON, May 21 (AP) — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said Sunday that he was seeking greater consensus on the Supreme Court, adding that more consensus would be likely if controversial issues could be decided on the "narrowest possible grounds." In a 15-minute address to Georgetown University law graduates, Chief Justice Roberts, 51, sketched a vision for leading a court sharply divided on issues like abortion, the death penalty and gay rights. "If it is not necessary to decide more to a case, then in my view it is necessary not to decide more to a case," Chief Justice...

<p>WASHINGTON — What happened to the missing file of Chief Justice John G. Roberts’ work papers on affirmative action?</p> <p>The file, which was compiled during Roberts’ tenure as an associate counsel in the Reagan White House, vanished last July when lawyers from the Bush administration were reviewing the materials at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., as part of a vetting process before Roberts’ formal nomination to the Supreme Court.</p>

WASHINGTON, May 2 — This is the week that the Supreme Court, done with its regular argument sessions, enters the stretch run. While it is too soon for substantive appraisals of the first year of the Roberts court, it is not too soon for stylistic observations about what is clearly, in the view of lawyers who have appeared there this term, a different court. "The tone has changed," Prof. Richard J. Lazarus of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he runs the Supreme Court Institute and teaches a course on Supreme Court advocacy, said on Tuesday. In common with every...

 The stars must have been aligned that January morning in 1955 when John G. Roberts Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y., because almost everything thereafter led him straight to the Supreme Court of the U.S. He graduated from Harvard College, then excelled at Harvard Law School as well as in his work at the U.S. Attorney General's office. It was there that our paths first crossed, for he helped prepare briefing papers for my confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court in 1981. He was later a successful litigator and partner at the Washington firm of Hogan & Hartson. He argued...

Chief Justice John Roberts declined to participate in the U.S. Supreme Court hearing that yesterday took up the appeal of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, who served as Osama Bin Laden's driver for five years. Roberts was forced to step aside because he had rendered an opinion on Hamdan's claims while sitting on a lower court. Roberts' recusal was regrettable because his legal thinking was spot-on in upholding President Bush's power to try Hamdan, now held at Guantanamo Bay, before a military tribunal. Roberts concluded that Congress had authorized the President to convene such tribunals and that Hamdan can be so tried...

Speech The Reagan Lecture by Chief Justice John Roberts Reagan Presidential Foundation Simi Valley, California (United States) ID: 191523 - 03/08/2006 - 0:41 - $29.95 Roberts, John G. Jr. Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. gave the Reagan Lecture at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library about his time in the Reagan White House and lessons learned from the former president. Following his remarks, Chief Justice Roberts took questions from members of the audience. Chief Justice Roberts served as a special assistant to the attorney general of the United States from 1981 to 1982, as...

JOHN ROBERTS HAS SAT IN the center seat of the Supreme Court a mere five months. Conventional wisdom holds that it takes four or five years for a new justice to hit his stride. Even so, Roberts's work stands out in a Washington whose daily manufacture, it seems, is another fight between an irresponsible Congress and a president with cratering job-approval numbers. If you want to see excellence in government, consider the brief tenure of our new chief justice.Under Roberts the Court has decided 39 cases. Roberts himself has written three opinions. Each was unanimous, the most recent being last...

<p>WASHINGTON -- The institutional vanity and intellectual slovenliness of America's campus-based intelligentsia have made academia more peripheral to civic life than at any time since the 19th century. On Monday, its place at the periphery was underscored as the Supreme Court unanimously gave short shrift to some law professors who insisted that their First Amendment rights to free speech and association were violated by the law requiring that military recruiters be allowed to speak to the professors' students if the professors' schools receive federal money.</p>

Just Breaking!!!! Supreme Court Upholds "Colleges who accept Federal Funds must allow Military Recruiters"

Yesterday, Vermont had to defend campaign-finance limits that have been challenged all the way to the Supreme Court, where the state found a rather cold reception. Chief Justice John Roberts had Vermont's attorney general, William Sorrell on the defensive and sounding somewhat evasive as Roberts wondered why Vermont's electorate just doesn't throw corrupt people out of office: The chief justice challenged the attorney general's assertion that money was a corrupting influence on Vermont's political system, the state's main rationale for its law. "How many prosecutions for political corruption have you brought?" he asked the state official. "Not any," Mr. Sorrell...

Ann Coulter...was definitely Friday’s biggest draw at CPAC 2006. From the get-go the conservative columnist had the crowd cheering and was frequently interrupted by applause. Many of Coulter’s talking points came from recent news events -- such as “the great Danish cartoon caper” and President Bush’s Supreme Court nominees. “Muslims are the only group who kill because people call them violent,” she said of Islam’s rage over the printing of Muhammad cartoons. Speaking about the nation's highest court, Coulter not only expressed elation at Justice Samuel Alito’s confirmation, she also shared her feelings on Chief Justice John Roberts ... She...

So far, Chief Justice John Roberts has led a harmonious Supreme Court, rallying colleagues to settle cases in the most limited, least controversial way. The question is whether that will last or has been just a short-term necessity for a changing court. The first few months of Roberts' tenure have not been short on divisive issues: assisted suicide, abortion, capital punishment. But cases decided so far have broken little new ground, and there have been no bitter dissents. Of the court's 18 authored opinions so far, only two came from 5-4 votes. And three cases that were expected to split...

Today (Tuesday) the San Francisco Chronicle ran an editorial entitled, “Why Alito is the wrong choice.” Instead of demonstrating what it says, it demonstrates why the Chronicle has failed to do its homework as reporters, in preparing its editorial. Here’s why: The editorial begins with this statement: In some ways, Alito's taciturn approach to questions about the great constitutional issues of our time was similar to that of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. But the distinction between the history of the two judges -- and the role of the justice they were nominated to replace -- are important. First,...

ON THE MORNING PRESIDENT BUSH nominated Samuel Alito to become the fifth Catholic on the Supreme Court, I was sitting on an airplane next to a joke-teller, one of those people whose idea of travel is the chance to pass along to strangers all the latest gags. "So," he began, patting his jovial belly, "have you heard this one? A doctor, a lawyer, and a priest are on a ship when it hits a rock and begins to sink. 'What about the women and children?' the doctor worries as the three pile into the only lifeboat. 'Screw the women and...

The Post article asserts at one point that Alito's answers on Roe and stare decisis "departed notably from those that [John Roberts] gave when asked similar questions during his confirmation hearing four months ago." But three paragraphs later, it contradicts itself, noting that Roberts was "reluctant" to address the issue and relying instead on his statements from his D.C. Circuit confirmation hearing in 2003. In sum, Roberts's and Alito's answers on Roe and stare decisis are substantively identical.