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Right Wing Upset with Roberts Pro-Gay, Pro Bono Work (NY Slimes Quotes El Rushbo)
PageOneQ.com/ New York Times ^ | August 5, 2005

Posted on 08/05/2005 7:39:15 AM PDT by gopwinsin04

The New York Times reported in Friday's editions that radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and Collen Parro of the Republican National Coalition for life spoke negatively about the latest disclosure of stories that surround Judge Roberts legal career.

Reports of Roberts involvement, [in a gay rights case] generated outrage and disbelief. 'There is no question that this is going to upset people on the right,' Rush Limbaugh told his listeners.

'There is no question that people on the right are going to say, 'Wait a minute! This guy is doing pro bono work and helping gay activists?'

James C. Dobson, chairman of the evangelical group Focus on the Family, said Judge Robers work in the case 'was not welcome news for those of us who advocate tradtional values,' though he said that he did not necessarily mean that Judge Roberts had shared the plaintiffs views.

Colleen Parro, executive director of the Republican National Coalition for Life, and one of the few conservatives to raise questions about Judge Roberts, said his work on the case 'was cause for more caution and less optimism about his nomination.'

The conservative American Family Association's president, Tony Perkins, attempted to downplay the significance of Roberts contributions to the case by writing: 'We are told that Roberts role was apparently limited to providing a few hours of participation in a moot court procedure as he routinely did for all of his clients.'

What Perkins omitted from his newsletter was that in fact Roberts provided key strategies for fashioning a majority on the court.

The strategies were described by lead attorney Jean Dubofsky as the successful strategy she used to win the case, according to the Times.

(Excerpt) Read more at pageoneq.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: homosexualagenda; johnroberts; romervevans; scotus
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To: dmz

Bulletproof no, but in an all out fight I suspect the GOP would win. If we should have an all out fight over anything shouldn't it be the court?


101 posted on 08/05/2005 8:59:28 AM PDT by kharaku (G3 (http://www.cobolsoundsystem.com/mp3s/unreleased/evewasanape.mp3))
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To: Thrusher
The Slimes completely distorted Rush's take on the situation.

Surprised!...Not!

102 posted on 08/05/2005 9:05:11 AM PDT by RightWingAtheist (Creationism is not conservative!)
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To: ModelBreaker; XJarhead

As I understand it, this case wasn't Roberts's case -- it was another partner's case. That other partner asked for help from Roberts. Isn't it perfectly normal for partners to help each other out with their respective areas of expertise, even on pro bono work?


103 posted on 08/05/2005 9:05:37 AM PDT by You Dirty Rats
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To: ModelBreaker
In 25 years practice, I never encountered a pro bono situation that the attorney did not choose.

For solo practitioners, that is clear cut. For a larger firm it isn't. If a firm takes on a pro bono client, and one of the lawyers working directly on the case calls up his partner, who may have particular expertise on an issue, are you saying that partner does not have an ethical obligation to the firm's client and a fiduciary obligation to his partner to assist in the matter?

Does the partner whose help is being requested have the right to ask what kind of client this is - pro bono or fee paying - and base his willingness to help on the answer to that question?
104 posted on 08/05/2005 9:05:38 AM PDT by BikerNYC
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To: mtntop3
This article is manifestly intended to crease dissention among conservatives. And there will be some who fall for the bait as indicated in this thread.

Most of the people on this thread are trying to intelligently discuss the subject matter here, which includes presenting opinions about whether Roberts will be the type of Supreme Court Justice that Bush promised to appoint. Almost everyone engaged in that discussion has acknowledged that the intent of the Slimes' article is to sow dissention among conservatives.

I refuse to allow the Slimes to make up my mind for me, but I also refuse to allow whatever tactics they use to try to turn me off of Roberts to automaticaly force me to blindly accept him. A rational discussion of his legal experience is completely reasonable.

An attorney is expected to have the professional capacity to develop arguments for either side of a case - this is standard practice beginning in law school. Attorneys in a law firm do not normally decline the firm's assignment request.

You make an excellent point: this is very true, and as an attorney, I have had to take positions on behalf of clients that I did not necessarily agree with from a personal point of view in order to do my job.
105 posted on 08/05/2005 9:07:03 AM PDT by Thrusher (Remember the Mog.)
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To: Valin
Then you'd better start being upset! I'd recommend running around in circles shouting at the top of your voice and waveing your arms wildly.

Why should I, the NYT is doing a fine job of it themselves. Why should I do it for them. They look like A$$es and probably will take the dems down with them. Their subscribership is way down and their accuracy is down too. So why get excited, I can just wait on the sidelines and watch the house burn down since it doesn't cost me one worthless paper.

106 posted on 08/05/2005 9:07:40 AM PDT by sr4402
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To: kharaku
 

 

 
You said: We have control over the house, senate and executive branches of government!

You mean Republicans have control over the house, senate and executive branches of government.

What makes you think that Republicans want a hard-core conservative judge on the USSC?  We certainly don't want more liberal activists, but I'm not sure we want Jerry Falwell sitting in black robes either. We want a person that will interpret the laws correctly, regardless of public opinion.

!

 

107 posted on 08/05/2005 9:07:44 AM PDT by HawaiianGecko (Liberals believe common sense facts are open to debate!)
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To: sr4402

Why should I

Because you're supposed to be upset. The NY Times says so therefore it MUST be true. :-)


108 posted on 08/05/2005 9:10:24 AM PDT by Valin (The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.)
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To: gopwinsin04

It sooo obviously stinks, it's bad even for the Slimes.


109 posted on 08/05/2005 9:10:39 AM PDT by GVnana
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To: gopwinsin04
For those on the far right inclined to be upset that he did this work please take a deep breath and refuse the bait: don't let them drive a wedge.

They are not attacking from the left, they are attacking from the right:
In order to outflank your opponent you must first recognize the tell-tale signs of their original flanking maneuver. This is it.

They will hide this behind self-glorifications of 'balance' and 'telling both sides' - but it remains an attack. See this for what it is, and remain vigilant.
110 posted on 08/05/2005 9:13:28 AM PDT by BlueNgold (Feed the Tree .....)
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To: gopwinsin04
This is troubling if the report is true that Roberts actually was integral in helping win this case.

The troubling part isn't his level of participation, but if he had a role in choosing to accept the case.

111 posted on 08/05/2005 9:21:46 AM PDT by Texas Federalist (No matter what my work/play ratio is, I am never a dull boy.)
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To: ssaftler
If you read up on the case in which Judge Roberts was involved, you'd understand that it was a plain old civil rights case questioning the validity of firing (or not hiring) someone strictly because that person was gay. If you think this makes him a "gay boy", you are sicker than How-Weird Dean!

Your comments reflect a misunderstanding of the Romer case. Here is a link to the case:

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/romer.html

May I respectfully suggest that you read it--particularly Scalia's dissent. I think you will conclude that it is one of the most far-reaching acts of left-wing, constitutional, judicial activism in the past 50 years.

I agree with your comment about the 'gay boy' rhetoric. But that is not really the issue. The issue is: will Justice Roberts feel free to make up rights and put them in the constitution or will he feel bound by the constitution as it is? His actions in the Romer case give me real pause about Justice Roberts.

112 posted on 08/05/2005 9:22:03 AM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: Texas Federalist

According to some earlier in the thread, it sounds like Roberts didn't have much of a choice about taking this case at his big firm.


113 posted on 08/05/2005 9:23:23 AM PDT by gopwinsin04
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To: NonValueAdded
if a majority of lily-livered liberals in a small blue enclave passed an initiative petition to confiscate all firearms, the 2nd amendment be damned, would it be judicial activism to say, "sorry, you can't do that in that manner?

But this underlines the problem in Romer v. Evans. In the hypothetical you pose, there is an amendment to the constitution that directly addresses the issue--the right to keep and bear firearms. So it is not judicial activism to apply the constitution as written. But in Romer, the case Judge Roberts helped in, there is not any constitutional provision setting up homosexuals as a specially favored class that you cannot discriminate against. The supremes in Romer invented that right and put it in the constitution. That is judicial activism.

114 posted on 08/05/2005 9:24:51 AM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: Brilliant
The fact is that no one will know how any nominee will vote until he's on the bench for about a year. All we can do is do our best, and hope that it suffices.

There are no sure things, but there are better bets than Roberts. He could have nominated someone like Luttig, Garza or Alito, who has a long and uncontroverted record on the bench and has never waivered from their conservative judicial philosophy. Instead, we get a game of Russian roulette.

115 posted on 08/05/2005 9:25:48 AM PDT by Texas Federalist (No matter what my work/play ratio is, I am never a dull boy.)
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To: BikerNYC
For solo practitioners, that is clear cut. For a larger firm it isn't. If a firm takes on a pro bono client, and one of the lawyers working directly on the case calls up his partner, who may have particular expertise on an issue, are you saying that partner does not have an ethical obligation to the firm's client and a fiduciary obligation to his partner to assist in the matter? Does the partner whose help is being requested have the right to ask what kind of client this is - pro bono or fee paying - and base his willingness to help on the answer to that question?

I worked in a big firm, a medium firm, and solo. It works the same everywhere. The attorney chooses what pro bono to do. In the medium firm, I was asked to participate in pro bono work another attorney was doing to force the boy scouts to accept homosexual members. I politely declined and told them why. It was never raised again. At that time, I was a lowly associate.

116 posted on 08/05/2005 9:27:13 AM PDT by ModelBreaker
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To: ModelBreaker

Okay, I give up. Roberts assisted with this case, not because he had any ethical or fiduciary obligation to do so, but because he sincerely desired to advance the homosexual agenda in the courts.


117 posted on 08/05/2005 9:33:50 AM PDT by BikerNYC
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To: Thrusher
The only true measure of Roberts will be after he is approved by the Senate. If he votes along the lines of Scalia or Thomas, it will be a conservative victory. If he turns out to be another O'Connor or Kennedy, the conservatives will have been tricked again, as they were with regard to Supreme Court selections by both Reagan and the elder Bush. Many conservatives held their noses with regard to Administration inaction on illegal immigration and deficit spending in the hope that President Bush would nominate an advocate of original intent and an opponent of judicial activism to the Supreme Court. If Roberts turns out to be a supporter of stare decisis with respect to the Supreme Court decisions in the last 60 years, the disappointment will be enormous.

President Bush is a lame duck; however, I believe Jeb Bush has Presidential ambitions. Jeb Bush's ineffective response with regard to Terri Schiavo did not endear him to social conservatives. He does not need to alienate them further if he intends to run for President in 2008 or 2012.

OTOH, the Christian Right is not much feared anymore. I was watching a Coral Ridge Ministries TV show on a Christian station last night and noticed that D. James Kennedy was looking quite old. Then I remembered that his more famous contemporaries, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, were both on the far side of 70. It is a rare parachurch organization, or for that matter, political action organization that survives the death of its founder. Without a succession plan, the Christian Coalition, Concerned Women for America, etc., will be of interest only to historians 20 years from now.

The Left accomplished its successes in this country because they recognized the importance of generational succession, a remarkable feat inasmuch as leftists do not believe in an afterlife. The Old Left of the 1930s and 1940s literally spawned the New Left of the 1960s and 1970s. The New Left penetrated academia, the mainstream media, the entertainment business, and government far more deeply and thoroughly than did their Communist and socialist fathers.

Long term success in restoring the American republic and traditional values will require a multigenerational effort.

118 posted on 08/05/2005 9:37:11 AM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: ModelBreaker

Don't focus on the nature of the plaintiffs but rather the nature of the case. Otherwise, you are playing the Slime's game. The petition said "the legislature shall not pass any law" and in effect, was amending the constitutional clauses pertaining to the proper role of the legislature. That is what was wrong with the petition. If allowed to stand because it was deemed "good law" in that it suported marriage, then the next 50 petitions would be equally valid if they supported something vile. It is a technical argument but that is what strict constructionalism is all about. The decision didn't establish a favored class per se and you cannot say that was Roberts' intent by any stretch.


119 posted on 08/05/2005 9:38:23 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Freedom of speech makes it much easier to spot the idiots." [Jay Lessig, 2/7/2005])
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To: HawaiianGecko

What we need is someone who is clear that their purogitve is simply to implement what congress has made law and to ensure that new congressional laws do not attempt to override the constitution.

I am not convinced that preventing perverts from applying for 'special pervert status' is strictly forbidden in the constitution. Frankly the notion of anyone applying for special status is unconstitutional. The only fault I can find with the law is that it's not broad enough.


120 posted on 08/05/2005 9:40:45 AM PDT by kharaku (G3 (http://www.cobolsoundsystem.com/mp3s/unreleased/evewasanape.mp3))
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