[Nephi]

Perhaps your senility kept you out of the loop recently, but conservatives expressed serious doubt about Roberts' conservatism when he was nominated as an associate justice. Now, Bush has passed over Scalia to name Roberts as SJ? (This is after Bush threw the "new tone" aside to slap down conservatives who had been warning Bush against naming Al "La Raza" Gonzales to the court.)

This isn't about Bush's right to name "his" justice. This isn't about my right to participate in a formerly conservative forum for discussion. This is about the future of the court and the future of the country.

Sorry to wake you.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Elevating an Associate Justice to be Chief Justice is rare, having happened only three times. The usual practice is to appoint as Chief Justice a person not already on the Court. So, in no sense was Scalia "passed over".