Well, George Dubya surprised a lot of folks last evening with his nominee to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. He nominated not a woman, not an Hispanic, but a 50-year-old white guy.
Since 2003, Judge John G. Roberts has been serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (which I have often heard described as a harshly conservative court).
[Read MSNBC article about the nomination.]
Some Senate Democrats are vowing that they will not give Roberts a free ride through the confirmation hearings, but it appears that he will almost surely be confirmed.
So what does this mean for you and me?
Sanda Day O'Connor was the swing vote in a lot of 5-4 rulings during her years on the bench, often leaning to the left. That configuration is very likely to change now. But I don't want to pre-judge the judge, so I'll just say that it will be interesting to see what happens. And it will be interesting to discover how his personal convictions might or might not influence his work.
Of course, the hot issue is Roe v. Wade and reproductive rights. Interestingly, Roberts has expressed conflicting points of view on this. (In other words, he appears to have "flip-flopped" on the issue.) NARAL Pro-Choice America refers to Roberts as an "anti-choice activist" on the organizations's Web site. With the Bush administration's ongoing push for "abstinence-only" sex education, we cannot afford another step backwards into the dark ages of sexual ignorance and repression of women.
It will also be interesting to see where Judge Roberts stands on the environment, labor rights, and prisoner rights.
And will his devout Catholicism influence his decisions in Church-State matters and other issues?
Stay tuned, folks. And let's hope that we can get through the next four years without losing our country as we know it.
No comments:
Post a Comment