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John Roberts’ confirmation as chief justice of the Supreme Court on Sept. 29 by a 78 to 22 Senate vote marks the second time a person has been elevated to the this position directly from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals since former Chief Justice Warren Burger.
Roberts, the youngest Supreme Court justice ever, was nominated by President Bush to replace outgoing Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. On Sept. 5, he was nominated to be chief justice following the death of William Rehnquist. Roberts has an extensive background. Having received his bachelor’s and law degrees from Harvard, he has argued more than 30 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and worked as a clerk for former justice William Rehnquist and an aide for president Ronald Reagan.
Roberts’ position as a steady conservative sours Democrats and worries liberals. His background of judicial efforts and ties has revealed that he is often working to strengthen the power of the government rather than use the power of the government to uphold the rights of people of the United States. He has chosen to be pro-administration in several of his cases and overlook the rights of citizens.
During his 2003 confirmation hearings to the D.C. Court of Appeals, Roberts had to defend his position on abortion as unbiased, stating, “Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land — there is nothing in my personal views that would prevent me from fully and faithfully applying that precedent.”
Roberts was involved in a case where he sought to defend a group of abortion clinic protesters whose goal was to block people from entering the clinic and to shut it down.
Justice David Souter, wrote in his decision that “petitioners’ blanket refusal to allow any women access to an abortion clinic overrides the individual class member’s choice, no matter whether she is the victim of rape or incest, whether the abortion may be necessary to save her life, or even whether she is merely seeking advice or information about her options.
Petitioners' conduct is designed to deny every woman the opportunity to exercise a constitutional right that only women possess. Petitioners’ conspiracy, which combines massive defiance of the law with violent obstruction of the constitutional rights of their fellow citizens.”
In a Guantanamo Bay case, Roberts supported the ruling that prisoners there have no enforceable human rights.
Since the 1980 Supreme Court decision in Mobile v. Bolden, Roberts has also been involved in an effort against Congress to weaken the Voting Rights Act, which would allow minorities to argue that their votes had not counted.
In the 1990 Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation case, Roberts was the federal government’s lead counsel before the Supreme Court. National Wildlife Federation members were seeking environmental protection when Bush decided to use 4,500 acres of public land for mining activity.
The Supreme Court ended up adopting Roberts’ argument, which would make it more difficult for citizens to challenge governmental actions to the environment.
Given his record, we can only hope that Roberts will uphold the Constitution and the rights of the people rather than the administration.
Submitted 10-06-2005
MALIBU, CA
