PUBLISHER'S NOTE
NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHERS THE SENATE GRINDS toward the confirmation of the next justice of the Supreme Court, Democrats hope that the President made a mistake, or s may even be...
...Of course there wasn't, and Holmes remained on the Court for the next 30 years...
...Although his judicial record is a short one—just two years, and some 30 opinions writ-ten as a judge on the U.S...
...Eisenhower tried to go back on his word, telling Warren he had not meant the Chief Justice seat...
...Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia—Roberts was one of the architects of the Reagan Revolution, particularly as an articulate advocate of judicial restraint...
...Warren was livid, and gave the president an ultimatum: appoint him, as promised, or he would resign as governor and stomp the nation, denouncing the president as a liar...
...But not even at Justice were all the politicos conservative, and Roberts often went out on a limb arguing for what Ronald Reagan had been elected to do...
...But as it turned out, Ike named Brennan on the basis of a conservative speech he had delivered to the American Bar Association Convention—a speech that Brennan was actually reading for the conservative New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Arthur Vanderbilt, who had laryngitis...
...George W. Bush thus not only knew what he was doing when he nominated John Roberts, but also has a very good idea of what he will get when Roberts takes his seat on the Supreme Court—a justice who will help to move the Supreme Court to the right in a way that conservatives have been dreaming about for decades...
...After leaving office, Dwight Eisenhower was asked by a reporter if he had made any mistakes as president...
...The Department of Justice, where Roberts spent the first years of the Reagan administration (and where I then also served), was one of the most conservative departments in Washington, and Roberts was a key player in helping to undo years of liberal advocacy by the department, and liberal decisions by the courts...
...Warren was given a recess appointment, and was on the bench two weeks after Vinson's funeral...
...They know there is a long history of presidents who did not get what they bargained for in their Supreme Court appointments, and in the case of John Roberts, a mistake or disappointment is probably the best they can hope for...
...Three years later, Ike elevated William J. Brennan, again by recess appointment, shortly before the 1956 election, thinking that a northeastern Irish Catholic (Brennan was from New Jersey) would help his campaign...
...Most earlier presidents had no idea how their Supreme Court choices would vote, and little way of finding out...
...Since the Reagan presidency, however, at least with conservative judges and lawyers, that is no longer true, which may be why the courts have taken a swing to the right...
...Applying this analysis to the writings, speeches, and even answers to interview questions of a judicial nominee allows the President's staff to know exactly what the President is getting...
...But the process used by the present Bush White House, culminating in the nomination of John G. Roberts, may well have avoided such mistakes and disappointments...
...N O T E F R O M T H E P U B L I S H E R S THE SENATE GRINDS toward the confirmation of the next justice of the Supreme Court, Democrats hope that the President made a mistake, or s may even be disappointed, in his choice of an apparent conservative...
...During the Reagan years a clear, well-defined conservative legal philosophy was established, based on analysis of case law and statutory interpretation...
...A charter member of the Reagan vanguard," the Washington Post now calls him...
...Alfred S. Regnery is publisher of The American Spectator...
...George Bush the Elder thought David Souter was a conservative, and there are many other examples of such grave errors...
...Of course care in the nomination process was something Ike was not guilty of...
...But within months the president asked the Justice De4 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR SEPTEMBER 2005 Reaganism and Roberts BY ALFRED S. REGNERY partment if there was not some way to recall Holmes...
...In 1902 Teddy Roosevelt appointed Oliver Wen-dell Holmes, then chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, to fill what was then called the New England seat...
...Two," Ike replied...
...Ike had wanted two moderate conservative justices, and instead got two of the most active liberals in 20th-century jurisprudence...
...He acted on the advice of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who assured TR that Holmes would rule in favor of Roosevelt's progressive initiatives...
...They are both on the Supreme Court...
...He cut a deal with California Governor Earl Warren at the 1952 Republican convention in which Warren agreed to deliver the California delegation to Eisenhower in return for the first Supreme Court vacancy after the election...
...When Chief Justice Fred Vinson died in September 1953, Warren called Ike to claim his chit...
Vol. 38 • September 2005 • No. 7
