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Judge John Roberts is a Supreme Pick 9/7/2005 He should receive overwhelming bi-partisan support and confirmation. Editor's Note: We encourage you to use this op-ed as a resource and to write your senators and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of Judge John Roberts' confirmation. This letter has been updated to note Judge Roberts' nomination as the next Supreme Court Chief Justice, replacing the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Letters sent via U.S. mail and fax are best. In addition, write letters to the editor of your local newspapers.
What do Leon Panetta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) and Harvard law professor and liberal legal scholar Lawrence Tribe have in common? All have words of praise for Judge John Roberts as the next U.S. Supreme Court Chief justice. Ever since President Bush announced his nomination of Roberts, he has garnered words of praise from both ends of the political spectrum. Judge Roberts is a man of outstanding personal character, brilliance, judicial temperament and sterling credentials who will be an outstanding Supreme Court Chief justice.
Judge Roberts graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and clerked for then Associate Justice William Rehnquist at the U.S. Supreme Court. He also served as associate counsel to President Ronald Reagan and as principal deputy solicitor general in the first Bush administration. Remarkably, Roberts argued 39 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court before President George W. Bush elevated him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in June of 2003. The Senate confirmed his nomination by unanimous consent.
A predictable number of left-wing groups have launched attacks against this fine man, mostly for what they perceive to be Roberts' "personal beliefs." In particular, the confirmation hearings will focus upon the issue of abortion.
Regrettably, these left-wing groups ignore the fact that in the United States, the rule of law is superior to the rule of man. Judges are required to uphold the Constitution, rather than their own personal beliefs. After all, the Constitution is supreme even over the judges who sit on our Supreme Court.
If and when Judge Roberts is questioned regarding his personal views on abortion, or any other issue that he may face as a Supreme Court justice, he should keep in mind the words of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who addressed this very problem several years ago, saying: "[I] n accord with a longstanding norm, every Member of this Court declined to furnish such information to the Senate. … When [a nominee] promises to rule a certain way on an issue that may later reach the courts, the potential for due process violations is grave and manifest." Thus, as Justice Ginsburg noted, it is a threat to the integrity of our nation's court system to require potential judges to state how they would rule on a particular issue.
In addition, the Senate has confirmed other nominees, such as Justices Thurgood Marshall, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer, even though they refused to answer questions as to how they would rule on a particular issue, such as abortion.
Recently, Sen. John Kerry and others have unreasonably demanded that the White House must turn over documents and confidential memos that Roberts wrote during his service in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. In order to appreciate the impropriety of such a demand, imagine that your legal opponent's attorney demanded to see confidential memos that your attorney had written on your behalf. He or she would be subject to ethics violations and malpractice liability for complying. Likewise, if the White House were forced to turn over confidential memos that Roberts wrote when he represented his client, the United States, this would likely chill communications between the government and its attorneys, both now and in the future. The White House must refuse to turn over these memos.
Senators should ignore the ridiculously inappropriate litmus tests and document demands of the radical left. Judge Roberts is a highly qualified nominee with extraordinary personal integrity who has proven himself worthy to sit on our nation's highest court. He should receive overwhelming bi-partisan support and confirmation. |
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