ConfirmThem

By Irishlaw Posted in Analysis and Predictions — Comments () / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Thanks to Erick for all the nominee gossip he keeps providing! I also appreciate that his sources are willing to talk and share what they know, even if it's not as concrete. I did want to take issue with one comment from Erick's last source, however: "The President is not going to name anyone who has specifically written that Roe should be thrown out. It’s not going to happen and people should deal with it."

I'm not one of those that needs a sworn affidavit from Roberts about Roe to be impressed with his credentials and his intellect, or even to believe he's a good originalist. However, it is strange that someone so smart and connected can make it through a career, in Washington no less, not having publically taken a position on the matter. It's a decision that even those who defend its outcome can't defend with regard to its reasoning, and it's split a lot of the country for the last three decades. If a judge or nominee believes it's a terrible opinion and should be thrown out, and has written that at some point in his or her career, why should other Roe critics just "deal with it" that that person will be disqualified from the high court? I think the model of Judge Pryor was fantastic to the contrary: someone who wasn't afraid to look senators in the eye and affirm that he not only thought abortion was a moral evil, but that its seminal decision was poorly written -- yet who could affirm just as clearly his respect for the Constitution and the rule of law. As a state AG and an appeals judge, he understood his role. Should that be an always-and-forever disqualifier from the Supreme Court, just because the Democrats and NARAL would be apoplectic? They've promised to fiercely oppose anyone the President nominates anyway. He might as well pick the best person even if he has a paper trail on Roe.

That being said, I do believe Bush has heard his base on this; it's why he's nominated such strong jurists to the lower courts. I just hope it holds for this nomination as well.