Confirmation Hearings for Judge Souter
Apparently, the only person in the United States without an opinion on whether the Roe vs. Wade abortion case was properly decided is Souter. This Supreme Court nominee with state and federal experience as a judge hasn’t yet made up his mind on one of the most important legal decisions in the nation’s history, decided 17 years ago.
Really? Or did he and this President learn from the experiences of court nominees Robert Bork and Anthony Kennedy and the last President that candor kills confirmation? Bork laid his anti-right-to-privacy cards on the Senate table. Kennedy played the same cards at his vest. Bork is a private citizen. Kennedy is associate justice.
As a psychiatrist and lawyer, I am sensitive to both the human equation of abortion and the legal doctrine in Roe vs. Wade on which that equation is grounded. Souter will be Justice Souter and barring a constitutional amendment, this country will again witness back-alley abortions and death in desperation.
But perhaps this view of Souter is too cynical. Perhaps this man, who as a state attorney general argued that abortion is murder, hasn’t made up his mind about Roe vs. Wade. If you believe that, you probably also believed “no new taxes.”
RICHARD GREEN, MD, JD
Los Angeles
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