recent tracks:

Of the Supreme Court

"Judge Roberts represents the best nominee liberals can reasonably expect from a conservative president who promised to appoint judges who shared his philosophy." Apparently the Washington Post agrees with me, more or less, now that the dust from the hearings has begun to settle.

This, however, is interesting:

[T]he line of questioning that Mr. Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who is Judiciary Committee chairman, chose to pursue offered a window on the increasingly troubled relationship between the court and Congress, as well as on one of the most consequential developments of the Rehnquist court's later years.

In a series of decisions, many written by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist himself, the court declared unconstitutional acts of Congress that had been passed by broad bipartisan majorities.

Laws permitting public employees to sue state employers for discrimination on the basis of disability and age, and also giving women access to federal court to sue rapists for damages, ran up against the court's new definition of the limits on Congress's power and the justices' insistence that they alone have the final word in interpreting the Constitution.

It seems that the media pushed Sen. Biden's line of questioning while ignoring the weightier material of Sen. Specter's implied critique of the late C.J. Rehnquist, whose seat on the court will almost certainly now come into Judge Roberts' possession.

What I've gleaned from all this: the more information about Judge Roberts becomes is unearthed, including his refusal to discuss many topics in the Senate hearings, the more basis there seems to be to distrust and perhaps even flat out disapprove of him. Nevertheless, he seems plenty intelligent, and will probably be a step up from his predecessor, so I guess that counts for something. We citizens get only a secondhand say in the matter, anyway, so my basic point in approving of the appointment is that I'll understand if Sen. Biden votes to confirm Judge Roberts. Hmm, think that's likely? Sen. Biden-for-President-2008 voting outside party lines? Well, anyway, I'll understand if Sen. Carper votes to confirm.

[A sidenote: isn't Sen. Biden's attempt to be the Howard Dean of the 2008 Presidential race by crafting an outraged leftist image and getting loads of media coverage for himself kind of hilarious? I can't wait to see how he tries to succeed where Dean failed (in actually gaining the Democratic nomination) AND defend himself when the whole plagiarism thing comes up...]

And some good news in that President Bush is meeting with folks from both sides of the aisle to consider J. O'Connor's replacement.