Posted on 09/13/2005 12:37:38 PM PDT by SmithL
The clash that surfaced at John Roberts' Supreme Court confirmation hearing Monday over whether he should reveal his views on court cases or issues is not merely a conflict between judicial neutrality and the public's right to know.
It's also a partisan battle over a past confirmation hearing and who gets to interpret it.
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee urged Roberts, a federal appeals court judge nominated by President Bush to succeed the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, to follow Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's example at her confirmation hearing and keep his opinions to himself. Democrats urged him to follow Ginsburg's lead and speak up.
Ginsburg answered some questions about legal issues and court cases at her 1993 confirmation hearing, but refused to answer others on the grounds that she might be committing herself on future Supreme Court decisions. Both sides in Monday's debate claimed her responses were precedents for their position.
At issue is whether Roberts, in questioning that begins today, should discuss his views on recurring legal issues, like privacy and executive power, and controversial Supreme Court rulings, like Roe vs. Wade and Bush vs. Gore.
The point isn't merely philosophical.
The committee's minority Democrats, mindful of Bush's stated admiration for arch-conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, suspect that the president has found their stealth equivalent in Roberts. But they lack conclusive evidence.
His most strongly conservative writings, memos as a government lawyer on issues like affirmative action and abortion, date from two decades ago. Some of his rulings in two years on the appeals court suggest a Rehnquist-style conservatism on questions of executive power and states' rights, but he has yet to issue a ruling that would reveal his current stance on any hot-button social issue.
Democrats are also well aware that Bush has other
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Arch-conservative, that a new one to me.
<< She reminds me of Ruth Buzzi on "Laugh-In" >>
Looks more like the KGB clone and Jack Nicholson nemisis from "Cuckoos Nest" to me.
And is at least as dangerous as a ship-load of ACLU-ers or the top two hundred attendees at an al-Qeada senior-ranks' convention.
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