More on Robert's record from WaPo...

[fooj]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072602070_pf.html


washingtonpost.com
Documents Show Roberts Influence In Reagan Era

By R. Jeffrey Smith, Jo Becker and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; A01



Newly released documents show that John G. Roberts Jr. was a significant backstage player in the legal policy debates of the early Reagan administration, confidently debating older Justice Department officials and supplying them with arguments and information that they used to wage a bureaucratic struggle for the president's agenda.

Roberts presented a defense of bills in Congress that would have stripped the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over abortion, busing and school prayer cases; he argued for a narrow interpretation of Title IX, the landmark law that bars sex discrimination in intercollegiate athletic programs; and he even counseled his boss on how to tell the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow that the administration was cutting off federal funding for the Atlanta center that bears his name.

The documents are from Roberts's 1981-1982 tenure as a special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith. Like previously reported memos from Roberts's stint in President Ronald Reagan's White House in the mid-1980s, the documents made available from the National Archives yesterday show a man in his mid-twenties deeply engaged in the conservative restructuring of government that the new president had promised.

To a greater extent than the White House documents previously released, the more than 15,000 pages of Justice Department memos show Roberts speaking at times in his own voice. In memos to the attorney general or senior officials of the Justice Department, Roberts argued for restrictions on the rights of prisoners to litigate their grievances; depicted as "judicial activism" a lower court's order requiring a sign-language interpreter for a hearing-impaired public school student who had already been given a hearing aid and tutors; and argued for wider latitude for prosecutors and police to question suspects out of the presence of their attorneys.

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:kick:

[JDPriestly]

1. He's really bad news.

Plain and simple. Unless he repudiates the theories he espoused then, it is evident that he cannot be relied on to enforce discrimination laws. His views on discrimination are neanderthal, and he is unqualified to sit on the Supreme Court.

[DELUSIONAL]

3. If Senator Reid does nothing

as I suspect -- then this will be a clear sign that Reid is working for the dark side -- as I suspect.

[eleny]

2. stripped the SC of jurisdiction over abortion, busing and school prayer

This guy is some piece of work.

[JDPriestly]

4. Southerners (and some midwesterners) desire for revenge

for the Union victory in the Civil war and integration and anti-discrimination laws are the backbone of the Republican Party. That's what keeps them erect so to speak. Roberts condoned discrimination against women. I feel sorry for his daughter and his wife. Charming guy. It's sad to learn that he is a bigot when it comes to women.

The opportunities in competitive women's sports that Title IX have brought have played a significant role in encouraging women to develop healthy attitudes toward their bodies. I say that based on my experience in raising daughters. I required them to participate in high school sports. My oldest daughter, now an adult, continues to be very, very active in sports. I'm so proud of her achievements. She is a doctor, and sports provide an excellent balance in her life. I hope Roberts publicly repudiates the stance he took on Title IX in the Reagan administration.

Wait until Roberts' daughter is a teenager. He is going to find out firsthand how insecure girls are about their bodies, and how their desire to live up to popular stereotypes about female beauty can cause them to do self-destructive things. Maybe then he will understand how important Title IX is. It allows young women to feel identify with active women who are comfortable in their bodies without forcing themselves to match the stereotype. It is no accident that a successful woman like Condoleeza Rice (not that I like her, but she is successful) was an athlete as a child.

A sound mind in a sound body is just as important for women as for men, and competitive women's sports encourages women to develop healthy attitudes toward their bodies.

[murielm99]

5. I live in a small town.

I have lived here for 27 years, and watched many of the children here grow to adulthood.

I think that sports can be too glorified, especially in small towns.

However, I can think of several girls here who changed their lives through sports. Some of them who might never have gone to college went on sports scholarships. A few who might have had lives that were nothing but trouble turned themselves around through sports. They received positive feedback from peers and adults for the first time in their lives.

And please remember that Title IX does not apply only to sports. It came about because a female college professor could not get tenure because she was too strong "for a woman."