How Will They Attack Roberts?

It didn’t matter whom President Bush nominated. The Democrats were poised to attack, and they would have unleashed whatever ammunition they could muster regardless of who the nominee was. “People for the American Way” and other extreme-left groups were faxing out packets of attack materials on John Roberts within minutes after his nomination was announced.
So: what have they got? The short answer is, little or nothing. You can access PFAW’s “report” on Judge Roberts here; it’s a feeble attempt at opposition research. Most of it deals with Roberts’ tenure as deputy Solicitor General. In that capacity, for example, he wrote a brief that argued that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be reversed. There are two problems with these attacks on Roberts’ briefs. First, the Solicitor General has a client: the President and his administration. He doesn’t just make stuff up, he argues the position that is formulated by the President, the Attorney General and other policy makers. Thus, in the abortion case just referred to, Rust v. Sullivan, Roberts’ brief said:

We continue to believe that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled . . . [T]he Court

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