News
2005-08-05
Activists react
to Roberts's support for gay rights
Immediately
following an August 4 Los Angeles Times
story in which John Roberts, Bush's pick to fill a vacancy
Immediately
following an August 4 Los Angeles Times
story in which John Roberts, Bush's pick to fill a vacancy
on the U.S. Supreme Court, was revealed to have worked
behind the scenes to help overturn an antigay Colorado
constitutional amendment in 1996, several gay leaders
expressed caution. While working with Washington,
D.C., law firm Hogan and Hartson, Roberts did pro bono
work for the team of gay activists and attorneys who
convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Amendment
2, a voter-approved law that prohibited any legal
protections for gays and lesbians in Colorado.
But just because
Roberts was closely involved doesn't mean gays and
lesbians should be celebrating. "We're going to continue to
call for the release of more information about his
record, and we're going to continue to call for
vigorous confirmation hearings," Kevin Cathcart,
executive director of Lambda Legal, told Advocate.com. "I
don't think we have an answer yet as to what John
Roberts's constitutional philosophies are."
"Judge Roberts's
involvement in [the case, known as Romer v. Evans] is
noteworthy, but his participation adds little to our
understanding of how he would vote on the court,"
added Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese.
"The stakes are too high for guessing games over Judge
Roberts's stance."
Those lobbying
for the religious right were quick to express doubts about
Roberts, whom they had been touting as a great pick for the
Supreme Court job. Mat Staver, president of the
antigay conservative legal group Liberty Counsel, told
the Baptist Press that Roberts's involvement in the
gay rights case is "something to certainly be concerned
about. We need more information to find out the facts
behind what Judge Roberts did when he was working on
the case. But if in fact the story is true, it is
clearly concerning because, according to the story, Judge
Roberts did not hesitate to get involved to work on
this case pro bono.... If in fact he did this, this
would be contrary to everything I've read about him thus
far. This was a state constitutional amendment passed by the
people. For the court to strike that down, I felt, was
judicial activism."
Conservative talk
show host Sean Hannity said he now has "some" doubts
about Roberts. "It's the first sign I've seen where his
conservative judicial philosophy...may not be as solid as
what I thought," Hannity said on his radio program.
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