In his recent travels, he has directed questions on the issue toward a discussion about judges, saying he would appoint jurists who believe in interpreting, not making, the law: judges, he said, like Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel A. Alito Jr., who he has said he believed would place limits on Roe v. Wade.
“On the federal judiciary I would want judges who are strict constructionists because I am,” he said last week in South Carolina. “I have a very, very strong view that for this country to work, for our freedoms to be protected, judges have to interpret, not invent, the Constitution. “Otherwise you end up, when judges invent the Constitution, with your liberties being hurt. Because legislatures get to make those decisions and the Legislature in South Carolina might make that decision one way and the Legislature in California a different one.”
On the issue of a disputed abortion procedure called “partial-birth abortion” by opponents, he told Mr. Hannity that a ban signed into law by President Bush in 2003, which the Supreme Court is reviewing, should be upheld. And on the issue of parental notification — whether to require minors to obtain permission from either a parent or a judge before an abortion — he said, “I think you have to have a judicial bypass,” meaning a provision that would allow a minor to seek court permission from a judge in lieu of a parent.
We all know he is not a pro-life candidate. But the one area that this matters in a president is in his appointments to SCOTUS. In this, his judicial philosophy is compatible with that of a pro-life cadidate.
IMO, the main issue with Rudy is his judicial philosophy. He needs to convince Republicans that he will appoint jurists like Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito. That's where most of the social issues (that divide him from the base) are decided. If we have a strict constructionist SCOTUS, Rudy's liberal views on some social issues are less relevant.
Does anyone think that Hillary or Obama will appoint anyone to the SCOTUS who is not to the left of Kennedy, if not Breyer? We will definitely get another Ginsburg or Stevens.