Soapbox

John G. Roberts, Breck Girl with a Past

In their warm and fuzzy biography of the oh-so-photogenic John G. Roberts, Supreme Court nominee, the Columbus Dispatch neglected to mention several important statements and rulings by Roberts. Here are a few facts about his disturbingly sparse record that should be known.

Roberts argued against renewing the Voting Rights Act. He also found in favor of police handcuffing a 12 year old girl for eating one french fry on the subway, even though adults in similar situations were merely issued tickets. Roberts ruled against American POW’s from the first Gulf War who wanted to sue Sadaam Hussein for the abuse they suffered in his custody, saying they were not entitled to sue for damages from a large pool of frozen assets of Hussein.

In the year 2000 Roberts was an important part of the legal team that fought to allow George Bush to be improperly declared the winner of the election in the state of Florida.

While on the Court of Appeals Roberts ruled that the American people have no right to learn the truth about whatever unsavory details of his energy task force meetings Vice President Dick Cheney is so determined to keep secret.

As deputy solicitor general, Roberts argued that those whom President Bush labels “Enemy combatants” have no rights under the Geneva conventions, the Uniform Code of Military Justice or any other set of guidelines and are, in effect, non-persons. He further found that just the president’s word that these beings are enemies is all the proof needed to strip them of their rights. Roberts ruling was in direct contrast to Justice O’Connor who ruled that the president does not have a “blank check” to act without restraint even in war.
Interestingly, 4 days after Roberts found in favor of Bush and against the people of the world, he was rewarded with a nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States.

None of these facts means that John Roberts is not a bright, qualified jurist, or that he would not uphold the Constitution and the rights of American citizens if his nomination were confirmed. He is hardly the only poerson out there who meets those standards, however. Before this man is given the opportunity to affect the lives of every person in this nation by being on the Supreme Court for possibly the next 30 years, we should, if possible, look beyond the Breck girl good looks and the cute family the media shows us to what lies underneath.