Nation & World: Roberts too smart to talk
Liberals can probably forget about blocking John G. Roberts from the U.S. Supreme Court. It simply isn't going to happen.
The U.S. Senate will confirm Roberts–there will be no filibuster–and he will probably serve for decades.
I am sure of this for two reasons: Roberts has no long paper trail as a judge, and he is bright enough to keep his mouth shut.
True, as a lawyer working in the Reagan administration in 1991–he was the principal deputy solicitor general in the Justice Department–he argued that Roe v. Wade was "wrongly decided and should be overruled," but that is what his client, Ronald Reagan, wanted. Roberts will argue he was merely a tool, a hired gun, a lawyer.
Later, in getting confirmed for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Roberts said that Roe v. Wade was the "settled law of the land."
But how does he now feel about abortion? And how would he vote on it in the future?
We are not going to find out. Not if Roberts is as smart as he appears to be.
We are not going to find out how Roberts would vote on abortion because the whole confirmation process is a game in which senators yap as much as they can and the nominee says as little as possible.
Not even the president of the United States knows for sure how Roberts feels about abortion. That's right. The guy who nominated him, George W. Bush, has made clear he does not apply a "litmus test" to his nominees.
Though serving on the Supreme Court is a lifetime job, though it profoundly affects the lives of every American, we are not really allowed to know very much about Supreme Court nominees.
Take Clarence Thomas. During Thomas's confirmation hearing, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked him how he felt about abortion.
And Thomas replied that he had no opinion on the subject.
Nobody believed that. But that is the way the game is played.
Nominees are coached by the White House that it is better to say nothing at all than to say something and risk a negative vote.
And John Roberts is plenty bright enough to say nothing at all.
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