Roberts - "Settled Law" Not So Settled

Confirming the recent comments by Attorney General Gonzalez, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts told Sen. Wyden of Oregon that, despite his assertion during his 2003 hearing that Roe v. Wade was "settled law":

"settled law depends to a degree on the bench on which you sit," meaning that while it may be settled for a circuit judge, the same may not be true for justices of the Supreme Court.

"His definition of settled law based on what he told me this afternoon is not settled," Mr. Wyden said, adding, "That is certainly something that needs to be followed up on."

Let the brawl begin resume.

Comments

[martin]

Those comments are unsettling.

[Geek, Esq.]

I don't get why people pretend how Roberts will vote on Roe is some kind of mystery.

He's going to vote to overturn Roe. Everyone knows it--except people who appear in press stories.

The only question is whether he's also going to vote to allow bans on contraception and gay sex as well. And that isn't really in doubt either.

[Appalled Moderate]

martin:

Read the entire article. The guy sounds like he has an independent judicial temperment. I think, if this was the New York Times, TM's spotlighting of this comment would be considered evidence of left-wing bias.

[Geek, Esq.]

On the other hand, these comments are more interesting:

""I asked whether it was constitutional for Congress to intervene in an end-of-life case with a specific remedy," Mr. Wyden said in a telephone interview after the hourlong meeting. "His answer was, 'I am concerned with judicial independence. Congress can prescribe standards, but when Congress starts to act like a court and prescribe particular remedies in particular cases, Congress has overstepped its bounds.' "

"Mr. Wyden said that he asked Judge Roberts whether he believed states should take the lead in regulating medical practice, and that the nominee replied that "uniformity across the country would stifle the genius of the founding fathers."

Mr. Wyden said, "I came away with the sense that he was somewhat sympathetic to my notion that there should be a wide berth for states to take the lead."

In discussing how the law was evolving on end-of-life care, Mr. Wyden said Judge Roberts cited a dissent by Justice Louis D. Brandeis in a 1928 Supreme Court case, in which he famously spoke of "the right to be left alone." Legal scholars view that dissent as a pithy formulation of the right to privacy - a principle that, years later and in a different context, formed the basis for the court's ruling in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion."

[Jeffersonian]

As a matter of detached, objective reality Roberts' remarks are correct. Circuit and appeals courts are bound to follow precedent set by the USSC, but the USSC is not. Is this in the smallest way controversial?

As Henry V said, "We are the makers of manners."

[Seven Machos]

What does that mean, "these comments are unsettling," Marty ? And does Geek think that Roberts will "vote to allow bans on contraception and gay sex as well" or not?

Come on, Lefties, you can do better than these murky statements.

[kim]

Many don't realize that Garbo said "I want to be left alone" rather than "I want to be alone".
===============================================

[John Thacker]

The only question is whether he's also going to vote to allow bans on contraception and gay sex as well. And that isn't really in doubt either.

The question is purely moot, considering that no state in the country would ban contraception nor enforce a law against gay sex. (There are several that did not repeal their existing law.)

In any case, merely because something is a bad idea doesn't mean that it's unConstitutional. Rent control is a manifestly terrible idea according to any economist, but that doesn't mean that it (or other dubious ideas like the minimum wage) violate an implied "right to contract" or an expansive definition of a "right to property"-- even though substantive due process easily could-- and did-- assume those rights. (Or could the 9th Amendment.)

[Harry Arthur]

G,E, He's going to vote to overturn Roe as he probably should. Regardless of where you stand on the issue of abortion, I would submit that Roe was arguably decided wrongly in the first place. If the pro-choice side is correct that a clear majority of the people in the country favor abortion rights then the states will legislate those rights. I suspect that the pro-choice advocates' real fear is democracy and their subconscious suspicion is that there is not the depth of support for abortion rights that they assert in public.

[sophy]

Welcome to our game world, my friend asks me to buy some Hellgate London gold .

[Atlantica Gold]

If you have enough Atlantica Gold, you can help others.