ROBERTS WON'T "ROCK the BOAT" to the RIGHT

Don't expect any displays of courage from another liberal in conservative clothing.

http://www.covenantnews.com/abortion/archives/014954.html

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050916/1029030.asp

Roberts Not Likely to Rock the Boat, Will Move the Court to The Left

This is all about Roe. Take the interrogation about Roberts' belief in the right to privacy. They are not asking about search and seizure in your home. They are asking about the "right to choose" (a brilliant locution that expunges the ugly word abortion from all political debate about abortion) - what Roberts in 1981 correctly termed the "so-called "right to privacy,' " a skepticism he is now required to disavow.

I predict two things: (a) Chief Justice Roberts will vote to uphold Roe v. Wade, and (b) his replacing his former boss, Chief Justice Rehnquist, will move the court only mildly, but most assuredly, to the left - as measured by the only available yardstick, the percent of concurrences with the opinions of those conservative touchstones, Scalia and Thomas.

I infer this not just by what Roberts has said in his hearings - that he supports Griswold v. Connecticut, that he respects precedent, that he finds Roe itself worthy of respect. I infer it from his temperament, career and life history as an establishment conservative who prizes judicial modesty above all. Which means while he will never repeat Roe, he will never repeal it and be the cause of the social upheaval that repeal would bring.

He is just not a judicial revolutionary. If you're a conservative looking for a return to the good old days, you'll be disappointed. And if you're a liberal who lives for the good old days because that's all that liberalism has left, tell Chuck Schumer to relax.