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July 20, 2005
Mister Roberts
Wish I was talking about the classic Henry Fonda movie.
Unfortunately, the man who promised to be a uniter, not a divider has instead nominated an out-of-themainstream, right wing hack to the Supreme Court -- just like his extremist handlers wished, and against the wishes of a strong majority of Americans who were hoping for a moderate justice. A little sampling of Roberts' Ordered Rules:
# Wrong on environmental protection: Roberts appears to want to limit the scope of the Endangered Species Act, and in papers he wrote while in law school he supported far-right legal theories about "takings" which would make it almost impossible for the government to enforce most environmental legislation.
Civil rights: Roberts worked to keep Congress from defending parts of the Voting Rights Act.
Human rights: As a appeals court judge, Roberts ruled that the Geneva Convention doesn't apply to some prisoners of war.
The right to religious freedom: Roberts argued that schools should be able to impose religious speech on attendees.
Women's rights: Roberts wrote that "Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled." He weighed in on behalf of Operation Rescue in a federal case. And as a lawyer, he argued (and won) the case that stopped some doctors from even discussing abortion.
Yeah, there's a "moderate" for you. I'm sure some right-wingers will accuse the left of a knee-jerk opposition reaction. But what choice did Bush give us? John Roberts is about as mainstream as Al Sharpton, and provides the court with another oxymoron ("Justice Roberts").
