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Roberts Resisted Women's Rights - Washington Post "Analysis"
Washington Post ^ | August 19, 2005 | Amy Goldstein, R. Jeffrey Smith and Jo Becker

Posted on 08/19/2005 6:14:30 AM PDT by Credo

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. consistently opposed legal and legislative attempts to strengthen women's rights during his years as a legal adviser in the Reagan White House, disparaging what he called "the purported gender gap" and, at one point, questioning "whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good."

In internal memos, Roberts urged President Ronald Reagan to refrain from embracing any form of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment pending in Congress; he concluded that some state initiatives to curb workplace discrimination against women relied on legal tools that were "highly objectionable"; and he said that a controversial legal theory then in vogue -- of directing employers to pay women the same as men for jobs of "comparable worth" -- was "staggeringly pernicious" and "anti-capitalist."

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


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: confirmation; johnroberts; scotus; supremecourt; womensrights
Because this is the Post, it is excerpted.

If you read the context of his "contributes to the common good" quote, he is obviously making a sly lawyer joke.

1 posted on 08/19/2005 6:14:31 AM PDT by Credo
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To: Credo

"Washington Post "Analysis""

I guess if the media can't find any "dirt" on Roberts they just make it up. This is like the AP yesterday basically wondering if Roberts may be a racist because his parents raised him in an area with white neighbors (gasp!) !!!


2 posted on 08/19/2005 6:18:39 AM PDT by NathanBookman (I'm the real Slim Shady. Seriously. Except for the Slim part.)
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To: Credo

If he defended a murderer he would be for murder.


3 posted on 08/19/2005 6:19:07 AM PDT by Semper Paratus
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To: Semper Paratus

Sound more like a 10th amendment issue and he was for states rights to address the issue as opposed to the fed.gov which was/is not needed.


4 posted on 08/19/2005 6:21:46 AM PDT by edcoil (Reality doesn't say much - doesn't need too)
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To: Credo
Roberts urged President Ronald Reagan to refrain from embracing any form of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment pending in Congress; he concluded that some state initiatives to curb workplace discrimination against women relied on legal tools that were "highly objectionable"; and he said that a controversial legal theory then in vogue -- of directing employers to pay women the same as men for jobs of "comparable worth" -- was "staggeringly pernicious" and "anti-capitalist."

And he's been vindicated on all of those points.

5 posted on 08/19/2005 6:21:49 AM PDT by Brilliant
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To: NathanBookman
Let them drive right over that cliff. Whats the difference between Dean and the MSM?


6 posted on 08/19/2005 6:29:36 AM PDT by bill1952 ("All that we do is done with an eye towards something else.")
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To: Credo
Headline: Roberts Resisted Women's Rights - Washington Post "Analysis",

Story: ... In internal memos, Roberts urged President Ronald Reagan to refrain from embracing any form of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment pending in Congress;

Opposing the ERA and resisting women's rights are two completely different things. The ERA was such an idiotic and unnecessary and insidious assault on the Constitution that would have been wide open to penumbras and interpretations by activist judges.

7 posted on 08/19/2005 6:32:18 AM PDT by VRWCmember
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To: Credo

This is absolute garbage. What Roberts said, and other justices agreed with him, is that not all work is equal. For instance, driving a truck is not a job that should be compared to sewing.


8 posted on 08/19/2005 6:33:08 AM PDT by Peach (The Clintons pardoned more terrorists than they ever captured or killed.)
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To: Credo

Is this one of those legendary front page "analyses?" I always love those.


9 posted on 08/19/2005 6:38:10 AM PDT by Cosmo (Liberalism is for girls)
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To: Credo

Washington Post-"Justice Ginsburg resisted saving unborn babies"...

Yes, Roberts was against special consideration and affirmative action. And yes, he was making a lawyer joke, saying that there were too many lawyers already (there are) and whether having more lawyers is good for society (as a lawyer, I'll leave that up to others to decide, but I'm with Roberts on this one).


10 posted on 08/19/2005 6:38:14 AM PDT by mak5
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To: Credo
Is this to be the face of the Supreme Court of America;

SPECIAL INTEREST! SINGLE ISSUE!

Let us hope not!

11 posted on 08/19/2005 6:49:49 AM PDT by yoe
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To: Credo

Resisted? That's pretty tame for the Post! You know they're scraping when they use anything less than "Hitler".


12 posted on 08/19/2005 7:21:22 AM PDT by AmericanChef
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To: Credo

Paging Judge Lefkow, paging Judge Lefkow. Please drive to O'Hare and get on the next plane to DC and give your tearfilled testimony again about how it's wrong to "criticize judges." Judge Roberts' and his family's life are in danger by all this constant criticism.

Where art thou, Judge Lefkow??


13 posted on 08/19/2005 8:00:34 AM PDT by GianniV
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To: Peach
For instance, driving a truck is not a job that should be compared to sewing.

Exactly. That's the problem with the equal pay for work of equal worth proposals. Who gets to decide what the worth is of each occupation? I guarantee if it's done by the government, especially during times of political correctness, the results will be ones we wouldn't agree with.

And what is the significance of anyone's opinion anyway, whether it yours, mine, or that of a government commission? The market already has an opinion of what the various occupations are worth, and the market is probably right. Those wage levels didn't get set that way because market forces like men better than women, those forces could care less. They are a precise measure of supply and demand for various kinds of labor, and every time government tries to set economic laws by decree, the economic laws find a way to strike back (leading the geniuses in government to say more of the same must be the solution).

14 posted on 08/19/2005 9:22:29 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Disregard the law of unintended consequences at your own risk.)
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To: Credo
In internal memos, Roberts urged President Ronald Reagan to refrain from embracing any form of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment pending in Congress; he concluded that some state initiatives to curb workplace discrimination against women relied on legal tools that were "highly objectionable"; and he said that a controversial legal theory then in vogue -- of directing employers to pay women the same as men for jobs of "comparable worth" -- was "staggeringly pernicious" and "anti-capitalist."

So the Com-Post has finally come around to accepting Roberts and is so indicating by praising his foresight?

15 posted on 08/19/2005 9:24:02 AM PDT by Still Thinking (Disregard the law of unintended consequences at your own risk.)
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To: Still Thinking
But ROberts was ahead of his time on immigration:

In October 1983, Roberts said that he favored the creation of a national identity card to prove American citizenship, even though the White House counsel's office was officially opposed to the idea. He wrote that such measures were needed in response to the "real threat to our social fabric posed by uncontrolled immigration."

16 posted on 08/19/2005 10:00:29 AM PDT by dnmore (If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.)
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To: Credo

The left, including the Washington Post wouldn't know a lawyer joke if they saw one.

Proof? They just saw one and didn't recognize it.

What a bunch of humorless idiots.


17 posted on 08/19/2005 5:31:24 PM PDT by jackbill
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