Wouldn’t it be nice if the right were interested in getting the best person onto the Court instead worrying about litmus tests on primarily religious-based issues?

If President Obama nominates Judge Diane P. Wood to the Supreme Court, conservatives plan to attack her as an “outspoken” supporter of “abortion, including partial-birth abortion.”

If he nominates Judge Sonia Sotomayor, they plan to accuse her of trying to “expand constitutional rights beyond the text of the Constitution.”

And if he nominates Kathleen M. Sullivan, a law professor at Stanford, they plan to decry her as a “prominent supporter of homosexual marriage.”

Preparing to oppose the confirmation of Mr. Obama’s eventual choice to succeed Justice David H. Souter, who is retiring, conservative groups are working together to stockpile ammunition. Ten memorandums summarizing their research, obtained by The New York Times, provide a window onto how they hope to frame the coming debate.

The memorandums dissect possible nominees’ records, noting statements they find objectionable on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, the separation of church and state and the propriety of citing foreign law in interpreting the Constitution.

While conservatives say they know they have little chance of defeating Mr. Obama’s choice because Democrats control the Senate, they say they hope to mount a fight that could help refill depleted coffers and galvanize a movement demoralized by Republican electoral defeats.

Here are some of the cases to be decided on this summer. What kind of judge would you want deciding them?




  1. Patrick says:

    # 28 Ralph, the Bus Driver said, “Once again, you posted something you obviously didn’t read. ”

    Apparently, you didn’t read the post I was responding to…

  2. Ralph, the Bus Driver says:

    #36, Paddy-O

    I did read the post BUT your posted response obviously wasn’t read by you.

    Moran, you were caught fudging again.

  3. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

    brm…the authors’ peripherals do help, but with each new generation and political wind the prevailing interpretation varies. There is no “proper” interpretation, just opinions.

    Otherwise, there’s no need for SCOTUS, eh?

  4. Greg Allen says:

    If the conservatives are going to oppose ANYONE, then Obama shouldn’t try to compromise with them AT ALL.

    We need a justice who is as far-left as Alito, Thomas, Scalia and Roberts are far-right.

    And that’s pretty darn far-left.

  5. Patrick says:

    #39 – Actually we need a Justice that will follow the constitution, not legislate from the bench. Political leanings shouldn’t be part of a jurists job function.

  6. qsabe says:

    So whats news. The people that screwed everything up just want to keep it screwed up so they can say the current batch hasn’t been able to fix what they screwed up. They know how because Limbaugh and Cheney has told them what to do.

  7. Jeff says:

    “Wouldn’t it be nice if the right were interested in getting the best person onto the Court instead worrying about litmus tests on primarily religious-based issues?”
    Wouldn’t it be nice if you had asked the same question about the left when Bork, Thomas and Roberts were under consideration? Typical hypocrisy of the left.

  8. Jon says:

    SEPARATION OF RAUNCH AND STATE !

    (It’s still legal – and always God-honoring – to air messages like the following. See Ezekiel 3:18-19. In light of government backing of raunchy behavior (such offenders were even executed in early America!), maybe the separation we really need is the “separation of raunch and state”!)

    In Luke 17 in the New Testament, Jesus said that one of the big “signs” that will happen shortly before His return to earth as Judge will be a repeat of the “days of Lot” (see Genesis 19 for details). So gays are actually helping to fulfill this same worldwide “sign” (and making the Bible even more believable!) and thus hurrying up the return of the Judge! They are accomplishing what many preachers haven’t accomplished! Gays couldn’t have accomplished this by just coming out of closets into bedrooms. Instead, they invented new architecture – you know, closets opening on to Main Streets where little kids would be able to watch naked men having sex with each other at festivals in places like San Francisco (where their underground saint – San Andreas – may soon get a big jolt out of what’s going on over his head!). Thanks, gays, for figuring out how to bring back our resurrected Saviour even quicker!

    [If you would care to learn about the depraved human “pigpen” that regularly occurs in Nancy Pelosi’s district in California, Google “Zombietime” and click on “Up Your Alley Fair” in the left column. And to think – horrors – that she is only two levels away from being President!]


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