Monday, March 04, 2019

Chief Justice Roberts: The Great Liberal Hope?

Like Lucy pulling the football away just as Charlie Brown tried to kick it, supposedly conservative judges have been frustrating conservatives and pleasing liberals for decades. 

With President Donald Trump poised to nominate a third judge to the U.S. Supreme Court should another vacancy occur, liberals who view the federal judiciary as just another avenue to advance their progressive agenda are now hoping that Chief Justice John Roberts (shown) will be the latest in a long string of “conservative” judges who have disappointed the Right and thrilled the Left.

Every presidential election we hear that we need to vote for the Republican candidate for president because of judicial nominations. Yet, as far back as President Dwight Eisenhower and his selection of Earl Warren as chief justice in the 1950s, Republican presidents have given us some awful justices (from the point of view of basing their opinions on original intent and the clear language of the Constitution). Other examples in addition to Warren abound --- Harry Blackmun, John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Anthony Kennedy, and Sandra Day O’Conner. It is true that there have been some others --- Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Neal Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito come to mind --- that have mostly pleased conservatives who take the Constitution seriously. And of course, there are the appointments by Democrat presidents that can be expected to toe the liberal line, with almost compass-like reliability.

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