John G. Roberts on Balance?

Court Nominee's Life Is Rooted in Faith and Respect for Law
By TODD S. PURDUM, JODI WILGOREN and PAM BELLUCK
John G. Roberts is a Harvard-trained, Republican
lawyer-turned-judge, with a punctilious, pragmatic view of
the law.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/21/politics/21nominee.html?th&emc=th
.........................................................

As a legal philosopher who values our grand American jurisprudential traditions and as a pragmatist by philosophic disposition, I am somewhat relieved by the Bush nomination of John G. Roberts to our Supreme Court. Per the NY Times exploration of his biography, Roberts is portrayed as a decent person who will presumably honor John Paul II's commitment to respect for persons, and particularly those in need. I would hope that his Catholic faith would dispose him to end off the American abomination of the death penalty. His stance on abortion is an open question. And I am worried a bit that he may relegate women to subordinate positions, but hopefully not.

However, it is a blessed relief to have a jurist (I imagine that he will be confirmed without stress) who honors our _legal_ traditions and does not float mythic pieties about our founding fathers -- too many of whom were into raping their slaves or exploiting their indentured servants. Our American traditions had quite some developing to do since the time when slaves were incorporated in our Constitution as three fifths of a person! To hear, thus, that Roberts respects Holmes, Brandeis, Frankfurter, and Marshall is entirely encouraging.

I am sure that I will disagree with some of Roberts' decisions, quite likely defending corporations in disputes with labor -- his father was comfortably a manager by occupation. FDR is not mentioned in his canon of great Americans. There is no particular mention of civil rights gains here in the late 20th century, but perhaps a disposition -- like that of Gandhi -- to stress the 'self-help' efforts of the individual to achieve success in life in contrast to strong state support for education, medicine, affordable housing -- the "benign neglect" thesis floated by fellow Catholic, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, while he was working for the Nixon administration. We all tend to be products of the cultures within which we have been raised -- unless we undergo a radical conversion somewhere along the line.

We shall have to see -- decision by decision. With Bush in office, it could have been a disastrous appointment. I don't think this one is.
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to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
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Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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