Sep 29, 1:11 PM EDT Senate Confirms Roberts As Chief Justice
By JESSE J. HOLLAND Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- John Glover Roberts Jr. won confirmation as the 17th chief justice of the United States on Thursday, charged by the Senate with the responsibility of leading the Supreme Court through turbulent social issues for generations to come.
He was being sworn-in at the White House later in the day by Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's senior member and acting chief justice since the death of William H. Rehnquist.
The Senate voted 78-22 to confirm Roberts - a 50-year-old U.S. appeals judge from the Washington suburb of Chevy Chase, Md. - as Rehnquist's successor. All 55 of the Senate's majority Republicans, and half of the Democrats, voted for Roberts.
Wanna know who the 22 Democrats are? Here's the roll call vote (senate.gov). I'll spare you some suspense by saying that yes, two of the Nays were the fine senators from California.
The "beauty" of it is that yes, all 22 nay votes were from Dems. So somehow not a single Rep actual found Roberts to be unsuitable for the position? Talk about partisan voting. And talk about the Dems being too weak to try and stick it to their opposition. This is why the Dems are in such trouble. They're too dumb to stick together and the Republicans are too sleazy to think for themselves. Though, we do see which deficiency is best for holding power.
Republicans didn't come out for Stanford economist Tom Campbell because he failed their abortion litmus test, so they've got only themselves to blame for village idiot Barbara Boxer still being in Congress. Dianne Feinstein plays to smark voters by pretending to consider an issue before she votes the party line, but Boxer plays to rube liberals by instantly falling in step behind the left wing of the party. I wonder if she has a schoolgirl crush on that idiot Schumer?
Frank
"You're looking at a very busy woman!" - Barbara Boxer on why she bounced over a hundred checks during what became known as the "House Banking Scandal"
Lord, look up past votes. 4 members of the court, Stevens, Kenndedy, O'Conner, and Scalia(the most conservative voice on the court) were all unanimously confirmed.
Welcome to the new world. It started with Bork, it intensified with the GOP takeover in 1994 and the subsequent dicking around with Clinton's nominations, and it will be this way for a very long time. It used to be that court nominations were done in a very genteel manner. But now, things have pretty much changed for good.
Originally posted by Lord of the ManorThe "beauty" of it is that yes, all 22 nay votes were from Dems. So somehow not a single Rep actual found Roberts to be unsuitable for the position? Talk about partisan voting. And talk about the Dems being too weak to try and stick it to their opposition. This is why the Dems are in such trouble. They're too dumb to stick together and the Republicans are too sleazy to think for themselves. Though, we do see which deficiency is best for holding power.
You think the partisan voting was on the Republicans' side? How's that?
I'm guessing that no Republicans found John Roberts unsuitable to be a Supreme Court Justice becuase he is overwhelmingly qualified for the position. Not one Democratic senator gave a clear reason why John Roberts should not be confirmed unless you count their belief that Roe v Wade is settled law and must never be touched because we know that the Court has never been wrong in history.
All they gave was soundbites about rolling back rights and not being sensitive enough (I'm looking at you Senator Feinstein) while giving red herrings about not having the documents that no one outside of some Senate Democrats thought they had a right to see.
And too weak to stick it to the Republicans? They had no chance to stop the confirmation and made no case about why he shouldn't be confirmed. Luckily for them, 23 Dems were pragmatic enough to realize that instead of falling into knee jerk partisanship. Now when they pull the same act when Bush nominates O'Connor's replacement, they'll have even less credibility because of their sily opposition to Roberts.
Originally posted by spfIt started with Bork, it intensified with the GOP takeover in 1994 and the subsequent dicking around with Clinton's nominations, and it will be this way for a very long time.
Were the Republicans dicking around with Clinton's nominees when they voted 32 to 9 to confirm Breyer and 42 to 3 to confirm Ginsburg? I'd love for Kerry, Kennedy, Boxer or Feinstein to say why they feel that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is more qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice than John Roberts is.
What reason was there to vote against Roberts? He was qualified. The Supreme Court is not supposed to be an ideological body. Nominees who are qualified should be confirmed, just as Clinton's nominees were confirmed.
Liberals whined and moaned about Souter too, so they don't have much credibility when it comes to prejudging nominees. Unless you can come up with a good reason to vote against Roberts, charges of groupthink taste like sour grapes.
Basically Democrats hate Republicans, conservatives, and people who believe in God too openly. They've isolated themselves to an utterly negative position with no agenda.
Think "Contract with America" and then ask your Democratic heroes why they don't get their asses engaged in drafting an alternative policy agenda rather than mindlessly griping about whatever position Republicans have chosen to take.
Being the party of complaint isn't drawing many votes.
Originally posted by Lord of the ManorThe "beauty" of it is that yes, all 22 nay votes were from Dems. So somehow not a single Rep actual found Roberts to be unsuitable for the position? Talk about partisan voting. And talk about the Dems being too weak to try and stick it to their opposition. This is why the Dems are in such trouble. They're too dumb to stick together and the Republicans are too sleazy to think for themselves. Though, we do see which deficiency is best for holding power.
You think the partisan voting was on the Republicans' side? How's that?
I'm guessing that no Republicans found John Roberts unsuitable to be a Supreme Court Justice becuase he is overwhelmingly qualified for the position. Not one Democratic senator gave a clear reason why John Roberts should not be confirmed unless you count their belief that Roe v Wade is settled law and must never be touched because we know that the Court has never been wrong in history.
All they gave was soundbites about rolling back rights and not being sensitive enough (I'm looking at you Senator Feinstein) while giving red herrings about not having the documents that no one outside of some Senate Democrats thought they had a right to see.
And too weak to stick it to the Republicans? They had no chance to stop the confirmation and made no case about why he shouldn't be confirmed. Luckily for them, 23 Dems were pragmatic enough to realize that instead of falling into knee jerk partisanship. Now when they pull the same act when Bush nominates O'Connor's replacement, they'll have even less credibility because of their sily opposition to Roberts.
Originally posted by spfIt started with Bork, it intensified with the GOP takeover in 1994 and the subsequent dicking around with Clinton's nominations, and it will be this way for a very long time.
Were the Republicans dicking around with Clinton's nominees when they voted 32 to 9 to confirm Breyer and 42 to 3 to confirm Ginsburg? I'd love for Kerry, Kennedy, Boxer or Feinstein to say why they feel that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is more qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice than John Roberts is.
My quote was in response to circuit court nominees, not the Supreme Court nominees.
Originally posted by spf My quote was in response to circuit court nominees, not the Supreme Court nominees.
I figured that, but the Bork Nomination and what I mentioned are much more analogous to what is happening with the SCOTUS nominations. And yeah, blocking the lower court judges was, in general, wrong then and it's wrong now regardless of party affiliation.
Roberts has been and will be an activist. That flies against everything the Republicans supposedly stand for.
Also, when someone is going to be a lifetime Supreme Court Justice, there should be absolutely no secrecy involved. Roberts and Bush were playing games with the process, and that is a disturbing harbinger for things to come.
A strict constructionist interprets the Constitution according to the language and original intent of the text at the time of its writing, in much the same way as a fundamentalist views the Bible. Fortunately, for strict constructionists, they have been endowed by God with the superhuman gift of being able to read the minds of people who died 200 years ago. Naturally, they use this power only for good - America (The Book)
"Activism" is an abused concept. Roe v Wade was activism, creating a right where no right explicitly existed, yet to overturn Roe v Wade would also be activism, repealing a right that has existed for decades, precedent be damned.
And while good people of conscience can disagree on the issue of abortion, to borrow Bush's kayfabe catchphrase, it was also judicial activism alone that put an end to the unfair "separate but equal" policies in the south.
Congress would not have had the will to ban "separate but equal" policies and neither would the average voter, if we lived in a true democracy with direct initiatives on a national level. Only the court could right that wrong.
It's easy these days to get caught up in single issue politics. Political groups, desperate for money and power, use the simplest tactics to appeal to the masses, but judicial activism is not a simple, soundbyte concept.
Judicial activism isn't necessarily good or evil, and therefore it should not be blindly opposed or applauded. Likewise one should not focus solely on achieving a desired outcome, as many lawmakers do, for it is the strength of our process that determines our success, not our dogmatic loyalty to any particular viewpoint.
I hope that Roberts, having argued before the court on many occaisions, will do as he says and judge the arguments set before him rather than shaping decisions to get the "right" result, a practice that should be abhored equally by both Republicans and Democrats, regardless of results.
Originally posted by messenoirRoberts has been and will be an activist. That flies against everything the Republicans supposedly stand for.
Also, when someone is going to be a lifetime Supreme Court Justice, there should be absolutely no secrecy involved. Roberts and Bush were playing games with the process, and that is a disturbing harbinger for things to come.
In what cases specifically has Roberts been an activist?
How have Bush and Roberts specifically played games with the process other than to refuse to release memos that the Senate had no right to see?
Originally posted by messenoirRoberts has been and will be an activist. That flies against everything the Republicans supposedly stand for.
Also, when someone is going to be a lifetime Supreme Court Justice, there should be absolutely no secrecy involved. Roberts and Bush were playing games with the process, and that is a disturbing harbinger for things to come.
Is that why Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that Roberts was undeniably correct in not giving opinions on possible future cases?
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Not what I meant or said. Half the south is transplanted northeners anyway today. I grew up in a small NE Ohio city. My mother talked about the segregated stores and resturants when she was growing up in the 1940's.