GOP Memo: John Roberts' Views Undefined
Reported by Judy - July 21, 2005
Despite all the praise Republicans are heaping on George Bush's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, some Republicans admit John Roberts' views on subjects like the abortion and the environment are not spelled out anywhere. That's the gist of a GOP memo leaked to another website Thursday (July 21, 2005).
The website the raw story published the memo prepared for GOP senators by Republican staffers of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The memo singled out Roberts' views on abortion, pointing to a brief he wrote during George H.W. Bush's administration seeing to overturn Roe vs. Wade. "The brief's discussion of Roe took up only a few sentences in the brief and says nothing about the author's (or co-author's) personal views," said the memo.
Regarding Roberts' environmental views, the memo said critics may point to a case in which he suggested the Interstate Commerce Clause might not allow the federal government to protect a species of toad because it did not migrate. It went on to say that Roberts also represented environmentalists fighting development around Lake Tahoe.
"Thus, his environmental record is hardly well-defined," the memo said.
The memo also predicted that Roberts will be attacked as supporting more religion in public schools, a ban on flag burning, and government secrecy for Dick Cheney's energy task force.
Republicans may well decide to make out Roberts' opponents as religious bigots, based on the strategy laid out in the memo.
"The unspoken undercurrent of these charges, and the likely basis for a whispering campaign against Roberts, is that he is a practicing Catholic and therefore predisposed to advancing the social policies of the Catholic Church through judicial opinions," the memo said.
As a response, the memo suggests: "At bottom, critics who attack Roberts' unstated views on abortion are simply attempting to impose a religious litmus test on nominees, i.e., practicing religious (especially Christians) need not apply. This is the same scurrilous attack on several of the President's lower court nominees, such as Bill Pryor, and has no place in modern politics."
Read the whole memo on raw story for everything you ever wanted to know about John Roberts. Chances are, you won't hear much of it on Fox News.
