- Attorney General Gonzales said Sunday that the White House will not surrender all papers from when Judge Roberts was a Deputy Solicitor General, citing the deliberative process and attorney client privilege, but saying that documents not within that privilege could possibly be handed over on a case-by-case basis. Senator Patrick Leahy said the privilege assertion was a "red herring" as a government lawyer working in the Solicitor General's Office has no lawyer-client privilege.
- Withholding internal government documents led to the standoff over nominee Miguel Estrada, who withdrew his nomination, in 2003.
- Judge Roberts and the White House have repeatedly stated that he is not nor has any memory of being a member of the Federalist Society. Membership in the Federalist Society has become a "badge of ideological and political reliability." The Washington Post reports that the 1997-1998 leadership directory contradicts that assertion. Roberts is listed as a member of the steering committee of the organization's Washington chapter.
- President Bush on Saturday urged senators to "rise above partisanship" in the upcoming confirmation process of the judge he chose to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. "It is important that Judge Roberts be confirmed before the court reconvenes on October the 3rd," Bush told the nation in his weekly radio address.
- Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who's retirement does not become effective until the confirmation of her replacement, said of Roberts, "He's good in every way, except he's not a woman. I am disappointed, in a sense, to see the percentage of women on our court drop by 50 percent."
- According to a New York Post columnist, Judge Roberts may have more solid "conservative" credentials than, say, David Souter did. But that's hardly enough reason for the Senate to confirm, essentially, a blank slate. "President Bush and many in his party have made clear when criticizing "activist judges" that a judge is human not merely an automaton and it "matters quite a bit what a nominee actually thinks." [Hat tip: Volokh]
Morning Nomination Clips, Monday, July 25, 2005
July 25, 2005
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