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September 15, 2005
CourtBriefs for Day 4: Garbage Time
The final score won't be in until the Senate votes in a week and a half, but it's looking like a Harlem Globetrotters-Washington Generals matchup. At 4:05 p.m. PT, Arlen Specter wraps up the hearings, giving senators a gold star for attendance. "Senators are very busy.... The attendance has been ... very good." Adds Sen. Leahy: "We have as strong a record [from Roberts] as we're going to have." He emotes: "I do love my country. I wouldn't serve here if I did not," recalling: "My parents came here from another country not speaking the language." And now here I am, speaking a language spoken only by 99 other people.
Harvard's Alan Dershowitz is making predictions at the Huffington Post about what kind of chief justice Roberts will be. Here's a taste:
1. He will not overrule Roe v. Wade...
2. He will dramatically lower the wall of separation between church and state...
3. He will uphold the death penalty against both substantive and procedural challenges...
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Furry white hats: in? Silly black stripes: out? |
What Dershowitz doesn't know: "I won't try to predict whether he will remove those ridiculous Gilbert and Sullivan stripes that Rehnquist sported. I think he will be of two minds on that issue." There's still time to get Roberts on the record. We know his answer: "I can not comment on cases that may come before the court. But as a fan of 'Doctor Zhivago' I'm definitely leaning toward furry white hats."
Indefatigable live-blogger and NPR correspondent Tom Goldstein gets loopy at SCOTUSblog.
2:38 - Judge Lindberg is up. She worked previously at Hogan & Hartson. She likes John Roberts.
2:33 - Ms. Tallman of MALDEF is up. They don't like Roberts.
2:29 - Katheryn Webb Bradley testifies as a Democrat who likes John Roberts. She was a clerk to Byron White and saw cases argued by John Roberts. She then worked with him at Hogan & Hartson. She really liked him. He would answer her questions. He did a moot court at her request. He told her the arguments he thought would win. He wasn't trying to use the case to advance an ideological agenda. (Sometimes these proceedings are majestic; other times, not so much.)
2:27 - Carol Browner apparently doesn't have an opinion on John Roberts.
2:27 - She likes citizen suits.
2:25 - She likes the Commerce Clause too.
2:22 - Carol Browner is up. She likes the environment.
Posted at September 15, 2005 04:13 PM