The 600-Pound Elephant

The 600-Pound Elephant

Senator Sam Brownback's (R-KS) mixed metaphor of abortion being the "600-pound elephant" correctly summarized yesterday's second day of hearings on John Roberts' nomination to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The talk of the day focused on privacy rights, precedents and, at one point, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter calling the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by the made-up misnomer "super-duper precedent." At one point Roberts deftly answered a question on Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court case that allowed for a right to privacy between married couples to use contraception, as a marital right of privacy. Legal scholars agree that Griswold led directly to Roe, but did it necessarily have to lead to Roe? Can there not be a privacy right in the Constitution, that marriage was indeed a "sacred precinct" that should not be subject to Federal or state oversight? In Griswold the Supreme Court, whether you agree with the decision or not, was recognizing and protecting the importance of marriage on culture. Further court cases and activist judicial thinking eroded the "marital right" and led to decisions such as Roe and Lawrence v. Texas - cases which opponents use to eradicate marriage as we know it. A heartening moment came when Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked Judge Roberts if he would live up to his predecessor's record. John Roberts admitted as Chief Justice he would not be a "dramatic departure" from Chief Justice Rehnquist. If true that is quite an honorable legacy to uphold.

Additional Resources Justice Sunday II: Save the Court Kit http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PK05G01&f=WU05I12&t=e

Vice Chairman of Voter Education

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