SHRED THE CONSTITUTION

Somehow Judge John Roberts got the *image* of being a strict constructionist constitutionalist. We are seeing during his confirmation hearings quite the opposite. Judge Roberts reads the Constitution with an eraser and a pair of scissors.

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?Feed=BWK&Date=20050914&ID=5113370

Roberts dropped a bombshell on conservatives who believe in a narrow interpretation of the Constitution: "Judges take a more practical and pragmatic approach when deciding the rule of law," rather than sticking to a strict philosophy, Roberts said. "The Framers chose to use broad language [in the Constitution], and we should take them at their word."

Under friendly but persistent probing from Senators Charles Grassley [R-Iowa] and Orin Hatch [R-Utah], Roberts dismissed the "strict constructionist" and "textualist" approaches to constitutional law, which keep the powers of the federal government on a shorter leash. "I do not have an over-arching judicial philosophy I bring to every case," Roberts said. "I tend to look at a case from the bottom up."

In effect, Roberts was telling the Senate that just because a right isn't spelled out in the Constitution doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. The Supreme Court, for example, first spelled out the right to privacy, the legal foundation behind abortion rights, in 1965 when it invalidated Connecticut's law against birth control in Griswold vs. Connecticut. "I agree with the Griswold court's conclusion," Roberts said.

TG: He agrees with the conclusion that allowed "privacy" to be appealed to in order for a woman to kill her own offspring. 40 million babies have died because of that case, and Judge Roberts agrees with it. Yet somehow he has the *image* of a conservative pro-lifer. HOW can this be?

That's not what the Right wants to hear. But it gives succor to the Left. "I was very comforted by that," says David Bookbinder, senior attorney for the Sierra Club. "The absolute last thing that the right wing wants to hear is that the Constitution means anything other than what it meant in 1789."

TG: Once again, the Bush administration and Judge Roberts have stabbed the right in the back while embracing and elating the left.