What if Roberts just outright lies?

[phantom power]

Everybody is reading the entrails, parsing every syllable out of Roberts' mouth. But it got me to wondering: what if he just outright lies:

Roberts: (lying) "I will never vote to over turn Roe vs. Wade!"

Then, he gets confirmed, and a year from now he votes to overturn Roe vs Wade. So what? What are we gonna do about it? Call him a liar? Big deal, he's appointed for life.

[Seansky]

1. What do you mean IF...

[eleny]

4. You've got that right!

Better to start getting support groups in place for when our rights are flushed down the toilet officially.

[tridim]

2. That's the entire BushCo MO

You think Roberts is any different? He's a 100% loyal Bushbot.

[Bluzmann57]

3. Couldn't he be indicted for lying to Congress?

They did it with a president, why not a Supreme Court Judge? After all, he should be more law abiding than anyone.

[hughee99]

12. Lying to congress?

Asking any judicial nominee to speculate on future rulings for cases they have not even heard, based on a vague premise of what might possibly happen in future Roe v. Wade cases, and trying to force him to rule with out even hearing the case is not how this works. Any supreme court justice's job is to hear the case in front of them and rule. We always want our justices to not be prejudiced but to have an open mind on things, unless of course that judge agrees with us, then it's okay to make up your mind before hearing the case.

[shoelace414]

5. impeachment is the only recourse

[phantom power]

7. Can they actually be impeached?

[formerrepuke]

6. Clarence Thomas lied- and everyone knows it....so why not?

[Zynx]

8. I don't think he will vote to overturn Roe.

The Republican leadership does not want Roe overturned and I don't think Bush particularly cares either. He may vote to overturn if their is a solid majority supporting upholding it already just to appease the right, but Roe will not be overturned on his watch.

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. The Supreme Court doesn't need to overturn Roe v. Wade

They simply have to issue several rulings which gradually erode it.

[phantom power]

10. I guess the larger issue I'm trying to get at is...

do these hearings mean anything at all? Roberts can represent himself as some kind of principled moderate in the hearings, but once he gets confirmed, I don't see how he is bound by anything he actually says in the hearings. Once he's on the bench, he can start acting like a far-right religeous fundy, right?

Can he be impeached for mis-representing himself? And, even if he can in theory, it's a whole different thing to actually accomplish it.

[enlightenment]

14. According to the US Constitution,

it would be shaky reasoning. Article II, section 4 reads:
"The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

Article III grants Supremes tenure on "good behaviour."

Does lying to Congress fall under "high crimes and misdemeanors?"

[Lars39]

11. The Bush administration shopped Roberts to the fundies for a year,

promising the fundies that Roberts would be their guy,
that he is a fine christian,that he'd do what they want, what is needed.
Fundies are firm believers in "the end justifies the means",
so Roberts' lying to obtain the position would be a given.

Gotta do what you must to wrassle control of SCOTUS from those evil liberals, dontchaknow! :sarcasm:

[Rainscents]

13. Republicans don't want R v W overturn... They need this

issues to used against Dem's! Enough said.