Release the Roberts Papers

[norml]

Release the Roberts Papers
By Ruth Conniff
August 2, 2005

As Bush was making an end run around the Senate with his recess appointment of John Bolton, his ideological bomb throwing candidate to be the top U.S. diplomat at the U.N., Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee were still struggling to get information on Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, John Roberts.

The Democrats sent a letter on Friday to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez requesting information on sixteen cases Roberts was involved in as Deputy Solicitor General under President Bush the elder. Roberts signed briefs in about 81 cases, 78 of which were argued before the Supreme Court, Democrats point out, and his office was involved in hundreds more cases during his tenure there. In their letter they are requesting relevant documents (which they identify, in order to expedite the process) in just 16 of those cases.

Some of the landmark cases mentioned in the letter, such as Rust v. Sullivan and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, are familiar to anyone who was even vaguely aware of the Supreme Court's work during the last decade. Many concern profound matters of policy on abortion, privacy civil rights, school desegregation, and due process.

Board of Education of Oklahoma City v. Dowell (1991)--Roberts filed an amicus brief opposing African American families who claimed that their local schools were becoming re-segregated.


snip


http://progressive.org/?q=mag_rcb080205

[rodeodance]

1. Gonzalez said yesterday he has not recieved a formal request from the

committee. Dems letters do not count.