Friday, September 02, 2005

Gay Rights and John Roberts By The Political Heretic

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"In the gay-rights case, Roberts was advising on strategy and reportedly spent only a few hours on the case. Thus, there's probably not enough from which to draw conclusions about how Roberts personally views gay rights or how he might rule on gay issues.

Likewise, there's no predicting how he'd vote on abortion or affirmative action. What we do know is that he respects precedent, because he has said so. And we now also know that he's nimble enough to consider without bias issues he might find personally objectionable.

But that's not good enough in Looking Glass America, where right is seen as wrong, and good is viewed as bad. Some on the right apparently can't absorb the thought that their chosen one would entertain legal options that benefit homosexuals, as Rush Limbaugh asserted on his radio show.
"There's no question this is going to upset people on the right," he said. "There's no question the people on the right are going to say: 'Wait a minute . . . the guy is doing pro bono work and helping gay activists?'

"The fact that Roberts worked with gay activists seems perfectly cheery news that argues in favor of his confirmation, not because it endears him to gays and liberals, but because it demonstrates that Roberts is exactly what both conservatives and liberals say they want. Even if they don't really mean it."
- conservative opinion columnist Kathleen Parker column defending Bush Supreme Court nominee John Roberts from the left and the right.

By the way, several liberal gay rights groups have issued a press statement opposing Mr. Roberts' nomination (no surprise there).

And here is gay Chris Crain's response:

"But by pre-judging his nomination before Roberts can even answer basic questions about his judicial philosophy, these four groups have shown themselves to be every bit as ideologically-driven as the nominee they oppose. And by focusing so much on "how Roberts would vote," rather than examining his character and judicial philosophy, they demean the confirmation process by transforming it into a results-oriented guessing game."

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