Monday - September 12, 2005

Advise And Condemn

Senate To Start Roberts Hearings
(WASHINGTON POST)

The Senate convenes the first confirmation hearing for a chief justice nominee in nearly two decades today, starting a week of admonitions and questions for John G. Roberts Jr. certain to probe deeply into the conservative views of a man who could shape the court’s direction for decades to come. The Judiciary Committee’s 10 Republicans and eight Democrats will focus on Roberts, 50, an appellate court judge and President Bush’s choice to succeed the late William H. Rehnquist, starting at noon with opening statements in the historic Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building.

Analysts from both parties say the Judiciary Committee’s toughest questions—and Roberts’s likeliest risk of a slip—will center on a few issues that have dominated liberal-conservative judicial debates for years. Many will touch on the balance of power between Congress, the executive branch and the courts. Others will resonate more viscerally with ordinary people: abortion rights, voting rights and questions of balancing environmental protections against jobs and property development.

And in the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, concerns about the treatment of poor people and minorities could heavily influence the thrust of some of the questioning. Roberts has been practicing for the hearings for weeks in front of panels of colleagues posing as committee members. But in many ways, friends say, he has been preparing for this week his entire life: dazzling his classmates at Harvard Law School, enthusiastically toiling as a government lawyer under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and serving since 2003 as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Many Senate Democrats privately predict he will win confirmation comfortably, barring an unforeseen bombshell.

But the ride won’t be free. In his years as a young lawyer in the Justice Department, White House and solicitor general’s office, Roberts advocated conservative judicial philosophies in hundreds of memos and letters. Many, but not all, of those memos have been released, providing insights into his thinking and beliefs.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/12/2005 at 06:12 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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