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NEWS & LETTERS, September-October 2005Roberts wins oneBush's nomination of right-wing Judge John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the U.S. was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sept. 22, by a vote of 13-5. It will now be voted on by the full Senate. Given Roberts' negative views about the environment, and women's and Blacks' civil rights, the lack of opposition to him is shocking. Women's groups have protested, along with the NAACP, People for the American Way, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund. But four neo-conservative African-American organizations, as well as some members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, support him based on his support of faith-based initiatives. Roberts' work in Reagan's administration made clear his drive to weaken, if not gut, the Voting Rights Act and limit, if not eliminate, affirmative action. A brief signed by him in 1991 stated that "Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled." "Liberal" senators went along with the Senate Judiciary Committee's agreement not to ask his views but focus on his "legal qualifications," despite the fact that his votes on issues that would come before the Supreme Court mean life or death for women, African-Americans, gays and lesbians, and the poor. Just consider that one Supreme Court vote crowned Bush the president in 2000, despite the voters. The "plan" to confirm Roberts and then scrutinize the nominee for Sandra Day O'Connor's vacancy could give the Supreme Court decades to overturn every right we've won. That is Bush's plan, and we and our children will pay dearly for this capitulation. --Mary Jo Grey |
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