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July 26, 2005
John Roberts, Federalist. Who Cares?
I've been hearing lots of liberals in an uproar because they've discovered that Judge Roberts was a member of the Federalist Society. Who cares? Did they expect the preznit to nominate a member of ACS? The fact that Roberts was a member of the Federalists, ironically named that they are, is to be expected.
Hell, at my school, the Federalists are just another organization that needs to offer free pizza to get people to come to their lunch speakers. I even went once when they brought in Prof. Barnett (I'm not sure the local chapter was so hip to his advocacy on behalf of Raich in the medical marijuana cases though) and I figured it was a good chance to meet a member of the Conspiracy.
The fact that Judge Roberts is suddenly being evasive about his membership in the Society is kind of odd, though. Does the Federalist Society, THE organization for conservative lawyers and jurists have such a bad reputation, that he feels the need to hide his membership? I don't get it.
Liberals would be better served forgetting all that and asking why the White House is refusing to release documents concerning Roberts' involvement in Iran-Contra. If I'm not mistaken, and I believe it was decided during Travelgate in the '90's, the solicitor general's office works for the people of the United States so any attorney-client privilege laws would not apply to protecting those documents.
Posted by Half-Cocked at July 26, 2005 10:11 PM
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Comments
I haven't heard anyone upset that he was in the Federalist Society. The uproar I've heard is about the confusion over the Federalist issue -- Roberts went out of his way to claim he wasn't a member, and then it came out that he was on the steering committee. It is very odd, but I don't think the Society itself is the problem.
Posted by: CM at July 27, 2005 09:30 AM
I've heard some concern about the fact that he was in the Federalist Society on the radio and seen it on some blogs and message boards. It's mostly because he's therefore seen as someone who wants to roll back environmental protections and commerce clause jurisprudence. That's to be expected, I think.
The evasion is strange, though.
Posted by: Steve at July 27, 2005 02:20 PM
I've seen at least one article that alleged that Roberts was on the steering committee of a local chapter of the Federalist Society, but that it was some kind of honorary appointment. Could be a bit of CYA press put out by the Bushies, but it could just as easily be true.
Posted by: kristine at July 27, 2005 09:20 PM