“Schumer Is Right”

Andrew McCarthy writes “Schumer Is Right” today on NRO.

Judge John G. Roberts Jr., or any nominee to the Supreme Court, should answer questions about important Supreme Court precedents. That includes, most prominently, Roe v. Wade. And the caterwauling to the contrary, most recently by Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.) and the RNC, is ill-conceived.

Earlier, we noted some related Roberts op-ed here.

The Republicans, despite being in the majority in Congress and controlling the White House, seem to be engaging in a pattern of strange timidity when it comes to their alleged principles.

When confronted with the “charge” that Roberts was a member of the conservative Federalist Society, Roberts backers quickly ran away from association with the group. Strange given that the group espouses the same sort of judicial philosophy the president claimed to support when he said he preferred judges in the mold of Scalia and Thomas.

Similarly, when news reports noted that Roberts had written a brief as deputy solicitor general in 1991 which stated the opinion Roe v. Wade should be overturned, many quickly went into a sort of damage control mode, asserting that Roberts was simply acting on behalf of his “client” the first Bush Administration, not expressing his own views. The brief said, in part: “The court’s conclusion in Roe that there is a fundamental right to an abortion finds no support in the text, structure or history of the Constitution.”

But isn’t that the mainstream Republican/conservative view in a nutshell? If so, why do Republicans so quickly run away from it like a schoolgirl who just saw a huge spider in the corner? At some point, Republicans should be willing, as McCarthy argues, to take questions about Roe, and defend their opposition to Roe, before the public. Similarly, they should not be so quick to run away from like-minded friends, such as those in the Federalist Society.

Conservatives are right about Roe, and right about the role of the judiciary. So what are they running away for?

Update: Mark Levin responds to McCarthy – “Schumer Is Wrong”

Ed at Captain’s Quarters agrees it’s a mistake to run away from the Federalist Society here.

Advertisement