Bush's Nominee: Judge John Roberts
Bush's choice for the Supreme Court is U.S. Circuit Judge John Roberts Jr. This is an aggressively divisive pick.
First his history, care of CNN:
Nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Roberts joined the bench in June 2003 after Senate Democrats initially stalled his nomination. The appellate court in Washington is considered the most prestigious in the country, and several justices have moved from there to the U.S. Supreme Court, including Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Roberts has argued 39 cases before the high court. A Harvard Law School graduate, he clerked for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and then-Associate Justice William Rehnquist. In 1982, Gordon served as associate White House counsel under President Reagan, leaving four years later to join the Washington-based law firm of Hogan & Hartson. He became deputy solicitor general in 1989 under President George H.W. Bush before returning to Hogan & Hartson in 1993. Gordon was born in 1955 in Buffalo, New York. Like McConnell, his relative youth may prove attractive to Bush if the president wants to leave a long judicial legacy.
Some of his legal arguments/rulings care of Slate:
On Separation of Church & State:
For Bush I, co-authored a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that public high-school graduation programs could include religious ceremonies. The Supreme Court disagreed by a vote of 5-4. (Lee v. Weisman, 1992)
On Criminal Law:
Joined a unanimous opinion ruling that a police officer who searched the trunk of a car without saying that he was looking for evidence of a crime (the standard for constitutionality) still conducted the search legally, because there was a reasonable basis to think contraband was in the trunk, regardless of whether the officer was thinking in those terms. (U.S. v. Brown, 2004)
On abortion:
For Bush I, successfully helped argue that doctors and clinics receiving federal funds may not talk to patients about abortion. (Rust v. Sullivan, 1991)
A few other tidbits include that Roberts gave $1,000 to Bush's 2000 campaign, he clerked for Kenneth Starr and he was voted to the DC Circuit Court by a unanimous Senate vote in 2003.
So he's close to Bush, his conservatism all but guarantees a fight, which will distract the media from Karl Rove yet his prior confirmation vote all but guarantees that he'll be confirmed this time and he's only 50, which means he'll be on the court forever. Sounds like it could be a political home run for Bush.
This is not good.
First his history, care of CNN:
Nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Roberts joined the bench in June 2003 after Senate Democrats initially stalled his nomination. The appellate court in Washington is considered the most prestigious in the country, and several justices have moved from there to the U.S. Supreme Court, including Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Roberts has argued 39 cases before the high court. A Harvard Law School graduate, he clerked for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and then-Associate Justice William Rehnquist. In 1982, Gordon served as associate White House counsel under President Reagan, leaving four years later to join the Washington-based law firm of Hogan & Hartson. He became deputy solicitor general in 1989 under President George H.W. Bush before returning to Hogan & Hartson in 1993. Gordon was born in 1955 in Buffalo, New York. Like McConnell, his relative youth may prove attractive to Bush if the president wants to leave a long judicial legacy.
Some of his legal arguments/rulings care of Slate:
On Separation of Church & State:
For Bush I, co-authored a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that public high-school graduation programs could include religious ceremonies. The Supreme Court disagreed by a vote of 5-4. (Lee v. Weisman, 1992)
On Criminal Law:
Joined a unanimous opinion ruling that a police officer who searched the trunk of a car without saying that he was looking for evidence of a crime (the standard for constitutionality) still conducted the search legally, because there was a reasonable basis to think contraband was in the trunk, regardless of whether the officer was thinking in those terms. (U.S. v. Brown, 2004)
On abortion:
For Bush I, successfully helped argue that doctors and clinics receiving federal funds may not talk to patients about abortion. (Rust v. Sullivan, 1991)
A few other tidbits include that Roberts gave $1,000 to Bush's 2000 campaign, he clerked for Kenneth Starr and he was voted to the DC Circuit Court by a unanimous Senate vote in 2003.
So he's close to Bush, his conservatism all but guarantees a fight, which will distract the media from Karl Rove yet his prior confirmation vote all but guarantees that he'll be confirmed this time and he's only 50, which means he'll be on the court forever. Sounds like it could be a political home run for Bush.
This is not good.
posted by Todd at 4:53 PM
2 Comments:
"Divisive" being defined as any nominee who doesn't march in ideological goosestep with TB, the editors of Slate and the vast multitude of leftist special interest groups that have spent years prepping to "go to war" over this nomination, regardless of who the actual nominee was.
On a side note, funny how there is apparently a selective (but not surprising) failure to acknowledge the recent NBC poll which showed 58% of Americans felt that President Bush deserved to have a qualified Conservative nominee confirmed. Divisive? Indeed ...
Top 11 Reasons that John Roberts is Out of the Mainstream:
11. Not 100% sure Bush is Hitler.
10. Like John Ashcroft, doesn’t like being photographed under a pair of breasts.
9. Founded the Crab Orchard WV, branch of the Ku Klux Klan. (Ooops, this is not considered out of the mainstream by the U. S. Senate Democrats.)
8. He has two first names.
7. Doesn’t know pornography when he sees it.
6. He has refused to answer Schumer’s questions on both the OJ case and the Michael Jackson case.
5. He’s never once chased an ambulance.
4. He agrees with more than half of the Ten Commandments.
3. He was only selected to distract from Karl Rove, and that’s no qualification for the Supreme Court.
2. He graduated first in his Harvard law school class.
1. He has no uterus.
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