[George W. Bush]

I would like to see Roberts clarify that Roe v. Wade is not law before he gets confirmed.

I think anyone who knows their history well understands that the Supreme Court can overrule prior rulings. It's part of our history. And the agenda of conservatives is to do exactly that with Roe. The real question is whether Roberts will. But I don't expect we'll know until after he's on the Court.

The Constitution says that Congress has _all_ legislative powers, but Roberts has effectively stated the liberal mantra that court decisions are law, too.

Well, the Constitution says that. Just like it says that federal taxes are legitimate for tariffs and says nothing about income taxes. Yet, conservatives are free-traders and anti-tariff. So it's a little hard to get too constructionist with the modern GOP being what it is.

I don't think that most of the GOP is any more eager to see issues like abortion dumped back in their laps. They kind of like the current arrangement where the Dims fleece the feminists to support abortion and they fleece conservatives by preteneding they'll restrict or outlaw abortion. It's a neat political economy, no?

At any rate, before we go to far down the road of 'court-stripping', something Roberts has spoken out against, we do have to recognize that if we grant too much authority to states and restrain federalism too much, we end up with a Court that has to respect the New London decision. The difference is that the New London decision took a local issue and then imposed it on the entire country. A worst of all possible worlds outcome. I just hope Roberts would have voted against or we'll come to regret the retirement of the unpredictable O'Connor.

I wish we had a nominee whose views we knew a little better. Souter wrote a lot of stuff as conservative as anything you'd ever read and then turned liberal. Ann Coulter has reported on how surprisingly conservative he looked on paper. The truth is that we won't know if Roberts is fish or fowl until he's been on the Court for a few years.

[The_Eaglet]

I think anyone who knows their history well understands that the Supreme Court can overrule prior rulings. It's part of our history. And the agenda of conservatives is to do exactly that with Roe. The real question is whether Roberts will. But I don't expect we'll know until after he's on the Court.

"ROE VS. WADE is the settled law of the land … There’s nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent."

It sounds like we already know based on his own words.