The Record

The Record

John G. Roberts, Jr. looks to be a solid guy. Unfortunately, though, he's not socially conservative--not as much as I would like, that is. He's issued these opinions on abortion:

"We continue to believe that [Roe v. Wade] was wrongly decided and should be overruled. ...the Court's conclusions in Roe that there is a fundamental right to an abortion and that government has no compelling interest in protecting prenatal human life throughout pregnancy find no support in the text, structure, or history of the Constitution." - brief written for the Supreme Court in Rust v. Sullivan (500 U.S. 173, 1991)

"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." - response to a senator's question in 2003, during his confirmation hearing for appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals

Source: Wikipedia, John G. Roberts, Jr.

He's a practicing Catholic, and his wife was once the vice president of a feminist, pro-life group (mixed signal?). For his current and planned position on Roe v. Wade, we'll have to pay attention to his confirmation hearings before the Senate.

On other counts, he has exhibited a good point of view on environmentalism, civil rights, terrorism, and government regulation.

See the link in the title of this post for Roberts's Wiki entry, my source of information for this post.

What do you think? Can we risk his wavering on abortion for an overall conservative-minded Supreme Court Justice? We still have one more seat opening up soon. As much as abortion is a central issue to me, I doubt we'd ever get a justice confirmed if he said outright he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. Is this, then, our man?

Edit (07/21): Wiki has been updated. In reference to his above pro-life brief, Roberts "said that his previous statement in 1990 was his client's position, not his own. Roberts was subsequently approved [as appellate judge]." He also stands with us on separation of church and state, saying that Lemon v. Kurtzman was wrongly decided.

Edit (07/22): Dr. James Dobson did a phone-in intro to Focus on the Family last night. He strongly praised President Bush's choice of Roberts and endorsed him as being a firm conservative and holding to strict constructionalism, or "originalism." That broadcast can be found here (a new window will open--make sure it's not blocked by a popup blocker), in the first 4:10 of the broadcast. I encourage you to listen; it contains some important information about Roberts. ALSO: the entire Focus on the Family broadcast on Tuesday, July 26th, will be devoted to an analysis of this nominee. The broadcast will be linked here.