Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules; they apply them … I come before the committee with no agenda. I have no platform.— John Roberts’ opening statement, Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, September 12, 2005 The opening statements of the 18 senators who will first vote on John Roberts’ nomination for Chief Justice of… Read more »
George W. Bush has nominated John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the United States. Bush lauded Roberts for his “goodwill and decency toward others.” Yet Roberts’ record reveals a callous disregard for the rights of people very much like the tens of thousands who have died and been rendered homeless by Katrina. The outpouring… Read more »
Consider this: John Roberts’s nomination for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court is confirmed by the Senate. Chief Justice William Rehnquist steps down. Then, Bush elevates Roberts to Chief. This scenario would avoid the nasty fight that would surely ensue if Bush elevated his model Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia – or chose another rabid… Read more »
Who leaked the name of John G. Roberts before Bush’s official prime time revelation Tuesday night? My guess: Karl Rove. He had the most to gain from an early announcement. Rove knows the mainstream media has a very short attention span. What better way to deflect our attention away from Rove’s crime in leaking the… Read more »
No sooner had the ink dried on Sandra Day O’Connor’s resignation letter, than the right-wing evangelicals began shouting threats: Bush had better pick a justice who would decimate the right to abortion as we know it. And corporate lobbyists promised to fight hard for a justice who would insulate big business from punitive damages, and… Read more »
Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before… Read more »
Dear Mr. Gonzales, You have been rewarded for your unflinching loyalty to George W. Bush with a nomination for Attorney General of the United States. As White House Counsel, you have walked in lockstep with the President. As Attorney General, you will be charged with representing all the people of the United States. Your performance… Read more »
Most Republicans and many Democrats have hailed Bush’s nomination of White House counsel Alberto Gonzales for attorney general as a brilliant choice. Whereas John Ashcroft ruffled feathers with his coarse warnings that opponents of Bush’s post-9/11 agenda “only aid terrorists,” the soft-spoken Gonzales is much more palatable. And he’s Hispanic to boot, so the Bush… Read more »
After months of intense campaigning about Iraq, terror, taxes and jobs, the future of the Supreme Court has finally entered the public discourse. Chief Justice William Rehnquist is in the intensive care unit, after undergoing a tracheotomy for thyroid cancer. The Court issued a terse statement, saying the Chief would take the bench when the… Read more »
In 1988, while trying to convince skeptical conservative activists of his father’s Christian bona fides, George W. Bush reassured them that George I was with them on judicial nominations, as well as abortion and other issues dear to their hearts. Then he punctuated his declarations with the six words that would ensure their support for… Read more »