Conservatives Quick to Support Supreme Court Nominee

By Jeff Johnson, CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer – July 19, 2005

(CNSNews.com) – Even before President Bush made the formal announcement that D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John G. Roberts would be his nominee to fill the seat to be vacated by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, conservative groups and politicians were lining up to praise him, even though a few did so cautiously.

Joe Giganti, spokesman for the National Pro-Life Action Center, told Cybercast News Service that Roberts appears to be “someone who would understand the constitutional reasons for the dissent in Roe v. Wade, and we would support such a nominee.”

“Our stance has been from the very beginning that any Supreme Court nominee must meet the ‘Rehnquist standard,’ that is, concur with his dissent in Roe v. Wade,” Giganti said. “Roberts is uniquely positioned to be that person as he clerked for [Chief] Justice [William] Rehnquist at that very time that this dissent was written.”

Giganti said the group would withdraw its support, however, if Roberts were to pledge to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he accepted the decision legalizing abortion on demand as “settled law.”

C. Boyden Gray – chairman of the Committee for Justice and former White House counsel to President George H.W. Bush – said Roberts’ “outstanding education and career, high character, and faithfulness to the Constitution make him an excellent fit for the court at this moment.”

“John Roberts has had one of the most distinguished legal careers in modern times,” Gray said. “His nomination is a solid first step towards returning the federal judiciary to its proper role in our system.”

The Third Branch Conference, a coalition of conservative groups lobbying for “strict constructionist” nominees to the federal courts, called Roberts a “solid replacement” for O’Connor, who has “unimpeachable credentials and temperament.”

“In naming John Roberts, the President hit it out of the ball park,” said Third Branch Conference spokesman Manuel Miranda. “John Roberts is a ‘lawyer’s lawyer’ who will interpret the Constitution and the law without regard to personal or religious views, as a judge and not a politician.”

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