Bush's Pick: Meet John Roberts

Thanks to our friends at Oil Empire for forwarding this timely and informative introduction to the man President Bush is nominating to the Supreme Court. John Roberts “joined the Washington law firm of Hogan & Hartson in 1986, then went into President George H.W. Bush’s administration, arguing cases before the Supreme Court as Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr’s principal deputy. He was nominated to the D.C. Circuit in 1992, but the appointment died when Bill Clinton succeeded Bush as president. Roberts returned to Hogan & Hartson, where he headed the firm’s appellate practice and frequently argued before the Supreme Court. President Bush nominated him to the D.C. Circuit two years ago,” The Washington Post reports. In a 1991 abortion case, then attorney Roberts argued “we continue to believe that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overruled.” In his confirmation hearing for the appellate court he said that he wasn’t expressing his opinion, but was merely representing his client’s interests.

Interesting that Cheney/Bush picked a judge who supports Cheney’s efforts to keep information secret from the 2001 “National Energy Policy Development Group.”

The best introduction to the importance of the “Cheney Energy Task Force” is

Crossing the Rubicon: Simplifying the case against Dick Cheney
by Michael Kane

Perhaps the fact that Cheney/Bush didn’t pick a female candidate for the Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O’Connor will help keep this nomination from being confirmed – but after Bush v. Gore, there’s no need to have illusions about the Supreme Court.

The message sent by this nomination is that “Justice” is really “just us.”

From People for the American Way

John Roberts, DC Circuit

In the short time since he was confirmed by the Senate in May 2003, Judge Roberts has issued troubling dissents from decisions by the full D.C. Circuit not to reconsider two important rulings. These included a decision upholding the constitutionality of the Endangered Species Act as applied in a California case and a ruling against Bush Administration efforts to keep secret the records concerning Vice President Cheney’s energy task force.

Rancho Viejo, LLC v. Norton, 334 F.3d 1158 (D.C. Cir. 2003): constitutionality of Endangered Species Act

This case involved a real estate development company’s contention that the…

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Anthony Lappé is GNN's Executive Editor. He's written for The New York Times, Details, New York, Paper, The Fader and Vice, among many others. He has worked as a producer for MTV and Fuse. He is the co-author of GNN's True Lies and the producer of their Iraq...