I amy not agree with everything John McCain says, but yesterday he addressed one of the two issues nearest and dearest to my heart -- the courts.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Tuesday he would appoint judges in the mold of conservatives John Roberts, Samuel Alito and former Chief Justice William Rehnquist if he were elected in November.

In a speech in Winston-Salem, the Arizona senator said he would "look for accomplished men and women with a proven record of excellence in the law, and a proven commitment to judicial restraint."

"I will look for people in the cast of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and my friend the late William Rehnquist -- jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference," McCain told an audience at Wake Forest University.

Roberts, the current chief justice, and Alito were both named to the U.S. Supreme Court by Republican President George W. Bush. Legal experts say they have helped shift it to the right. The court has the final word on questions of U.S. law and its rulings affect the rights of all Americans.

What the article doesn't note is that William Rehnquist was also one of the great scholars of the Supreme Court in the last generation -- and that legal scholars of all stripes have noted that Roberts and Alito are superbly qualified jurists whose work on the court has been impeccable from a legal standpoint. One would think those would be good things -- especially since Americans overwhelmingly view the Supreme Court as properly balanced or too liberal.

Not that this matters to the NY Times.

On a day when Mr. Obama won a decisive victory in North Carolina and Mrs. Clinton eked out a win in Indiana, Mr. McCain spoke about his judicial philosophy. He is determined to move a far too conservative and far too activist Supreme Court and federal judiciary even further and more actively to the right.

Mr. McCain predictably criticized liberal judges, vowed strict adherence to the FoundersÂ’ views and promised to appoint more judges in the mold of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. That is just what the country does not need.

The Times editorial then goes on to complain that the Court has failed to uphold racial discrimination in school assignments, citizens' rights to participate fully in politics, and mischaracterized a decision upholding Roe v. Wade as undercutting the right to abortion and falsely claimed a retrenchment on voting rights -- despite the fact that the decision was written by reliably liberal Justice John Paul Stevens!

Whose views are out of step with those of America and the requirements of the Constitution? Not John McCain's -- it is those of the New York Times, and the Democrat candidates for president. For them, only an unbalanced, left-wing court that ignores the dictates of the Constitution as written will do.

That alone is reason enough to support John McCain.

Posted by: Greg at 10:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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