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Senate Dems Frustrated by Roberts' Refusal to Answer Questions
on Wide Range of Topics
Senate Dems Frustrated by Roberts' Refusal to Answer
Questions on Wide Range of Topics
US Chief Justice nominee John Roberts was questioned for
a second day at his Senate confirmation hearing for his views
on a wide range of topics but repeatedly declined to answer
questions by members of the Senate Judiciary committee, saying
they could come before the Supreme Court.
Roberts is widely expected to win approval from the Republican-controlled
committee next Thursday. Republican senators ended their questions
late yesterday but agreed to let Democrats have another round
today, and then conclude the day with testimony from outside
witnesses. The full Senate will vote by the end of the month.
If confirmed, Roberts will be the youngest chief justice in
over 200 years.
We play excerpts of the hearing and speak with two legal
experts, Ted Shaw of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Peter
Irons author of "A People's History of the Supreme Court."
[includes rush
transcript]
For over eight hours on Wednesday, Roberts fielded Senators'
questions on an array of legal issues including the death
penalty, privacy, affirmative action, international law and
more. While he outlined his views on some issues, Roberts
repeatedly declined to address numerous questions from Democratic
committee members.
In contrast, several Republicans defended Roberts" answers
and began congratulating him as though he were already on
the court.
We begin with Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn who caught the
public's eye when he became emotional on the first day of
the hearings over the divisiveness between Democrats and Republicans.
However, Coburn - a former doctor - has made controversial
statements of his own. In July, he told the Associated Press,
"I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other
people who take life." In 1992, a 20 year-old former
patient filed a malpractice suit against him, charging that
he sterilized her without her consent. At Wednesday hearing
Coburn asked Roberts about foreign law.
- Sen. Tom Coburn (R - Oklahoma) questioning John Roberts.
During the hearings yesterday, Democratic Senator Patrick
Leahy of Vermont - the ranking member on the judiciary committee
- raised the issue of capital punishment. His questions to
Roberts came just hours before death row prisoner Frances
Newton was executed in Texas. She was killed by lethal injection
shortly after 6 o'clock last night despite widespread calls
for a stay of her execution.
While Leahy didn't specifically mention Newton's case, he
said investigations into various death row cases had revealed
drunk and sleeping lawyers, underfunded and indifferent lawyers
and a "startling number of innocent men" being sentenced
to death who are later exonerated.
- Sen. Patrick Leahy (D - Vermont) questioning John Roberts.
John Roberts has served in the administrations of George
HW Bush and Ronald Reagan. He has argued more than three dozen
cases before the Supreme Court. In one of them, he argued
that the Supreme Court should invalidate a federal affirmative
action program. Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy raised the
issue of affirmative action at yesterday's Wednesday's hearing.
- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D - Massachusetts) questioning John
Roberts.
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York blasted Roberts
for refusing to answer numerous questions before the committee.
- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D - New York) questioning John Roberts.
Later on in the day, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold raised
the issue of gay rights.
- Sen. Russ Feingold (D - Wisconsin) questioning John Roberts.
Senator Feingold asked Roberts about his recent involvement
in a case related to "enemy combatants" that was
before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit. In July 2005, the Court upheld the Bush Administration's
plan to convene military commissions to conduct trials of
al Qaeda members accused of war crimes. Salim Ahmed Hamdan
lost his challenge to this policy. Hamdan is a citizen of
Yemen who was captured during fighting in Afghanistan and
then held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Well yesterday, Judge Roberts was under scrutiny for deciding
on the Hamdan ruling shortly before his interview by President
Bush for the Supreme Court vacancy. Some experts on legal
ethics have been divided about whether Judge Roberts should
have recused himself from the case. Senator Feingold asked
Roberts about this.
- Sen. Russ Feingold (D - Wisconsin) questioning John Roberts.
We speak with two legal experts about the confirmation hearings.
- Peter Irons, professor of political science at the University
of California at San Diego, he is the author of numerous
books, including "A People's History of the Supreme
Court," and editor and narrator of "May It Please
the Court."
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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