Posted on 09/06/2005 5:51:19 AM PDT by OESY
...Elevating Judge Roberts to Chief was a logical decision, both politically and on the merits. The Senate and media have been investigating the nominee since July, and have found superlatives with nary a negative. The Judge is in a position to be rapidly confirmed....
More importantly, what we have learned about Judge Roberts suggests that he shares Chief Justice Rehnquist's judicial philosophy. If Mr. Bush now follows with the nomination of an equally distinguished conservative for the Court's second opening, the Roberts Court will be able to continue the legal restoration that the late Chief Rehnquist began....
That historic mission is to restore the Court to its proper Constitutional role as a judicial arbiter rather than as an engine of liberal policy-making....
He made some progress, notably on limiting federal power over state governments (Lopez in 1995); church-state relations, especially with the 5-4 Zelman decision in 2002 that found private-school vouchers constitutional; racial preferences (Richmond v. Croson, 1989); and property rights (Nollan in 1987). It's a tribute to Mr. Rehnquist's principles that he also upheld liberal precedents if they had become embedded in common practice, such as the Miranda warnings (Dickerson v. U.S., 2000) that he had once opposed as policy....
But the Chief was denied a genuine intellectual majority by the protean quality of some of his colleagues. Justices Anthony Kennedy and Sandra Day O'Connor tapered their views to the Beltway winds, while David Souter repudiated his confirmation testimony and joined the Court's liberal wing....
Red State Democrats have kept a studious silence. They know that the "values" issues that so motivate the political left -- abortion, gay marriage, racial preferences -- are far less popular....
The President should be thinking about his Supreme Court legacy for the next 30 years, not the next 30 days.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Rehnquist passing away was a huge opportunity for Bush.
Roberts' confirmation should go very quickly. It would be beyond all but the most extreme Democrat's vision to hold up the vote when two seats are open on the SCOTUS.
I hope Bush doesn't make the same mistake his father did when it comes time for the 2nd nomination... nominate a "moderate" like Souter. What a huge mistake that was.
Just a thought...not intended to be disruptive....
"What has Roberts ever done to justify being elevated to the position of Chief Justice" before he's even got a few years under his belt as any kind of judge at all?"
I've gone back and forth on Bush. He had done extremely well on foreign policy in a trying time, and his tax cuts were clearly important to the economic boom we've seen during his term. But actions such as signing McCain-Feingold, supporting Kennedy's education bill, and founding a vast new entitlement with the Medicare prescription bill are beyond disappointing. McCain-Feingold is more in the heart-breaking category.
But if he'll stand firm on Supreme Court nominees, and put in place a court that can actually reverse some of the madness of the last 70 years, then I promise I'll never harp on the guy's failings again.
The Supreme Court is his last chance to make a real impression on the heart and soul of this country. Social Security reform appears dead, and it wasn't a very ambitious proposal to start with. He has no other major initiatives on the horizon - he'll probably be too busy fighting fires in Iraq and New Orleans for the next few months. So this is it.
I don't even expect that we'll see immediate changes because of the Bush's nominees. All he has to do is swap out O'Conner with an originalist, and get Roberts to replace Rehnquist. That will lay the foundation.
He may get the chance to do more, but I actually expect that to fall to his successor. I have a feeling Ginsberg and Stevens will try to hang on looking for a Democratic president to replace them. (Stevens, being 85, may very well not make it. But I think he'll try.) If and when those two are replaced by judges who can read the plain English of the Constitution, then we could see some real reversals in the seemingly never-ending expansion of the role of government in American life.
Might want to pass this on to Karl Rove. According to some posters in the moonbat world, he was responsible for Rehnquist's passing just to get the heat off Bush for the Katrina "disaster".
Yes, we have been 1 vote away for about 15 years now. Just think if Bork had made it to the USSC where we would be today. Yes, it would be nice if Ginsberg or Stevens would step down during Bush's 2nd term.
To play the Dem game, Roberts is replacing O'Connor, therefore we all expect W. to appoint a CONSERVATIVE to replace Rhenquist. The Dems have nothing, nothing.
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