After all, these guys are opposing Judge Roberts based solely upon ideology, not competence or qualifications.

In a letter to Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Republican chairman and ranking Democrat, respectively, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, 160 teachers of law from 63 institutions stated their opposition. They said it was based on Roberts' memos as a Reagan administration lawyer, the briefs that he signed as deputy solicitor general in the George H.W. Bush administration and his rulings on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

That record, the letter said, suggests that Roberts "holds a limited view of Congress' authority to enact key worker, civil rights and environmental protections and a similarly narrow view of the vital role our courts and our government play in safeguarding individual rights, especially civil and women's rights."

At a news conference, Duke University Law School professor Erwin Chemerinsky said Roberts was "likely to be much more conservative than O'Connor" and could overturn narrow decisions upholding affirmative action, the right to privacy and separation of church and state.

In other words, there is no question of fitness for the Supreme Court, simply an objection based upon philosophy. Since the ABA has given the judge its highest rating, this letter is simply a disgrace.

And i love the justification these folks use to justify the rejection of Judge Roberts -- the rejection of Robert Bork, generally considered to be the nadir of confirmation politics and the classic example of the destruction of a highly qualified judge based upon ideological considerations.

Chemerinsky compared O'Connor's departure from the court with the 1987 retirement of moderate Justice Lewis Powell. The Senate rejected Judge Robert H. Bork, then-President Ronald Reagan's first nominee to replace Powell, and the seat eventually went to the moderate conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Fine -- just wait for us to Bork any future liberal nominee -- as should have been done to Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Posted by: Greg at 12:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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