According to an analysis by Dan Balz and Charles Lane in today's Washington Post, "President Bush moved boldly to shift the Supreme Court to the right last night by selecting federal appellate judge John G. Roberts Jr. to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor." As the Post points out:
For the White House, Roberts appears to be the ultimate confirmable conservative....As a lifelong Republican, Federalist Society member and veteran of the Reagan and first Bush administrations, the 50-year-old has presumably established his credentials for the right. But his rhetoric is cool, earning him many friends and few outspoken enemies. His legal abilities are widely acknowledged to be excellent. And he has assembled a paper record that presents no undeniable proof of personal views that could be attacked as extreme.
In other words, what we have here is, very likely, an ultimate (if not easy) confirmation of John Roberts and a shift to the right in the Supreme Court of the United States. True, Supreme Court justices are notoriously unpredictable once they get on the court, but if we simply assume that Roberts is a mainstream conservative, we could see dramatic changes in a wide variety of areas:
*Women's reproductive freedom (Roe v. Wade?)
*Civil liberties and the right to privacy (the Patriot Act? due process protections?)
*Separation of church and state (school vouchers?)
*Environmental protections (the Endangered Species Act?)
*etc.
As People for the American Way points out:
Roberts?s record is a disturbing one. Among other things, is hostile to women?s reproductive freedom, and he has taken positions in religious liberty and free speech cases that were detrimental to those fundamental rights. Roberts has limited judicial experience, but even his short tenure as a judge raises serious concerns about his ideology and judicial philosophy. For example, dissenting opinions by Roberts have questioned the constitutionality of the Endangered Species Act and argued that Americans tortured by Iraq when it was a terrorist state can receive no compensation.
The point is, with John G. Roberts on the Supreme Court, it is likely that we're finally going to see a rightward shift in America after many years of moderate status quo. What this means, in all probability, is that the states will become more important than ever as a battleground and as a last stand in defense of the rights listed above.
Which is exactly why the election in Virginia this year is so important. Would we rather have Jerry Kilgore in charge, along with people like Republican Attorney General nominee "Taliban Bob" McDonnell, as well as a right-wing-dominated state legislature? Or would we feel more comfortable with some checks and balances built into the system, with moderate Democrats like Tim Kaine (as Governor) and Creigh Deeds (as Attorney General) in Richmond? The choice is clear; the battle is joined...
Don't knock this one until you research it. It is generally considered to be a conservative philosophy, but Black was difficult to nail down and on occasion helped the liberals.