From Overheard in New York:
Fat guy: Yeah, this O'Connor thing is really big. Most people don't know this, but the Supreme Court has the final say over all laws that are passed. I think they approve it before even the President does. Like I said, it's big. --Florent, Gansevoort Street
From the NPR coverage: about W's meeting with John Roberts Jr, who he has just announced as his first nominee to the Supreme Court:
"They're painting it as a match made in heaven, they just got along really well."
"He has a good heart."
"Does this nomination seem like a slam dunk?" "Pretty dunky, I'd say" -- Nina Tottenberg Well, that's lovely and all, but maybe we should look at his positions on the issues. Via americablog, a detailed report by the Alliance for Justice. Here are some excerpts:
John G. Roberts, nominated by President Bush to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, has a record of hostility to the rights of women and minorities. He has also taken controversial positions in favor of weakening the separation of church and state and limiting the role of federal courts in protecting the environment...
Mr. Roberts supported a hard-line, anti-civil rights policy that opposed affirmative action, would have made it nearly impossible for minorities to prove a violation of the Voting Rights Act and would have "resegregated" America's public schools. He also took strongly anti-choice positions in two Supreme Court cases...
He was a co-author of the government's brief in Rust v. Sullivan,10 the case in which the Supreme Court upheld newly revised Title X regulations that prohibited U.S. family planning programs receiving federal aid from giving any abortion-related counseling or other services. The provision barred such clinics not only from providing abortions, but also from "counseling clients about abortion" or even "referring them to facilities that provide abortions...
Roberts co-authored two briefs on the government's behalf arguing for court supervision to be lifted in school desegregation cases. In a 1990 case, the amicus brief co-authored by Roberts in his capacity as Deputy Solicitor General sought to weaken the standard and limit the timeline for court-enforced desegregation decrees in the nation's schools...
Roberts co-authored two briefs arguing for an expanded role for religion in public schools. In one case, he co-authored a government amicus curiae brief before the Supreme Court, in which he argued that public high schools should be allowed to conduct religious ceremonies as part of a graduation program, a position rejected by the Supreme Court.
More at People for the American Way, who details his charming opinions on the constitutionality of Endangered Species Act and the secrecy of Vice President Cheney's energy task force. NARAL's got the full anti-reproductive freedom goods here, and there's a pretty detailed bio in the dkosopedia. It seems he is also suspicious of federal laws in general, and singled out the Violence Against Women Act as a place where the federal government shouldn't have juristiction. But apparently he's very nice, and Georgie likes him, so we might as well just give him a pass. Or you could click here or here.
