SCOTUS Report

I am continually surprised by the courage of our president. The Senate Democrats warned him to avoid nominating a Supreme Court justice who was “out of the main stream.” Sandra Day O’Connor must be replaced, they said, by a moderate in her mold. Laura Bush urged George to replace a woman with another woman. GOP strategists saw this appointment as an opportunity to reach out to the growing Hispanic electorate by picking a judge such as Alberto Gonzalez or Emilio Garza. The right wing wanted a judge in the conservative image of Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas. So with all these forces in play, who did the president pick?

President Bush nominated Judge John Roberts (Here's his bio) a conservative young white man who just happened to be the best candidate for the job. Bush overlooked warnings and urgings and political opportunity and simply selected the best. How refreshing, and how in character for our brave president.

Hugh Hewitt called the selection a home run for the president, the SCOTUS, and for the United States. Judge John Roberts may be the smartest lawyer I have known, and he combines that intellect with a graciousness and good humor that will make it hard for any except the most extreme ideologues to oppose him.

Hugh may be a bit too optimistic. Already the left wing smear machine is at work. Here is what you find on the NARAL Pro Choice America web site.

Dear Senator xxxxx, As your constituent, I am urging you to oppose John Roberts, President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court. If Roberts is confirmed to a lifetime appointment, there is little doubt that he will work to overturn Roe v. Wade. As Deputy Solicitor General under the first President Bush, he argued to the Supreme Court that "Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled…."

Then there’s this commentary on the Daily Kos blog about Roberts’ wife Jane:

We may not know how Roberts feels about abortion. But we do know how his pro-business wife feels about it: She’s a feminist for life. Among the personal tidbits we know about the Roberts clan: they have two (very cute!) adopted children. Expect more cute photo-ops of the children, because the love of adopted non-aborted kids is something the right is prepared to talk about.

And we can always count on the Democratic Senators to bring the proper perspective to their deliberations.

The president has chosen someone with suitable legal credentials, but that is not the end of our inquiry. The Senate must review Judge Roberts' record to determine if he has a demonstrated commitment to the core American values of freedom, equality and fairness. --- Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader

I look forward to the committee's findings so that I can make an informed decision about whether Judge Roberts is truly a guardian of the rule of law who puts fairness and justice before ideology. --- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Don’t be fooled, it’s all about ideology: Fairness before justice, equality before liberty is all Democratic code for judicial activism. Democrats want justices who rule based on their sense of fairness, never mind the rule of law. They want the Supreme Court to create law that advances equality by redistributing wealth and imposes preferential treatment based on race and gender.

The box of bricks award goes to (can you guess?) Senator Babs Boxer who worried about Roberts' position on a host of rights, guaranteed by the Constitution, especially the right to privacy (code: unfettered abortion), the right to harassment-free work places (see Legal Heaven on Earth), the right to clean air and water, and the right of redress for veterans to benefits they were promised. Is she amazing, or what? Not every California Babs could invent four novel Constitutional rights in just one sentence.