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Unfair Attacks Begin in Earnest Against Judge John Roberts

By Wanda Franz, Ph.D.

NRLC President

                There have been a lot of "theories" about the recent Supreme Court nomination. 

                Theories about who would retire from the court.  Theories about who the new nominee would be, with pundits claiming "inside information"-- only to be proved wrong.

                There have been theories about the nominee's politics, or how he would vote once on the court. 

But one thing was never theoretical.  Whoever President Bush named to the U.S. Supreme Court, pro-abortion groups were going to attack. 

They were pre-programmed to do so. Like attack dogs let loose from the leash, they could only respond to whomever was nominated by viciously and relentlessly attacking their prey, in this case Federal Appeals Court Judge John Roberts.

Roberts, by all accounts, is a good and decent man of deep faith who loves his family and has a deep respect for his profession, the law. 

So perhaps it's not surprising, knowing the modus operandi of our pro-abortion opponents over the years that the first attacks, or "concerns" as the media likes to call them, have come against Judge Roberts' family, his faith, and his view of the law. 

A public servant's family used to be out of bounds in the political wars.  But not any more, in this era of politics of personal destruction brought on by the abortion wars, which so polarized our civic life. 

In an article that surprised even those of us jaded by so much personal attack politics, Robin Givhan of the Washington Post let loose the attack dogs on Judge Roberts' wife, Jane, AND HER FOUR- AND FIVE-YEAR-OLD CHILDREN, for they way they were dressed at a White House press introduction following his nomination by President Bush to the Supreme Court. 

Apparently, they were dressed too nicely. 

According to Miss Givhan, it was too 1950s. The family looked too perfect. She allowed that the children were "innocent," which implied that the parents were not. Miss Givhan said that dressing appropriately is a "selfless" act, and since she claims "the Roberts family went too far" with their '50's family look, she implies the parents were selfish for trying to create some kind of image. 

Imagine for a moment being subjected to a blistering editorial in your local newspaper for the way you dressed your children for a special event, and you'll have a bit of the sense of how vicious such an attack is. 

Critics have also made special note of John and Jane Roberts' deep Catholic faith, another topic for "concern" by some.

But this focus on a nominee's faith didn't start with Roberts.  Recently, pro-abortion Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) raised questions about what he called "the deeply held personal beliefs" of a federal judicial nominee who happened to be a Catholic. To our knowledge, Sen. Schumer has not raised this question about any non-Catholic nominees. This has come again with pro-abortion Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Il.)

Questions about Judge Roberts' legal philosophy may be more relevant, but that doesn't mean they will be fair. For example, groups like Planned Parenthood are attacking Judge Roberts for once signing a brief in which the first Bush Administration expressed its opinion that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overturned

Similarly, the pro-abortion group NARAL is attacking Roberts, saying he is "a divisive nominee with a record of seeking to impose a political agenda on the courts."

But this may be why they're afraid of him, because they know it took politically activist judges to "find" a so-called right to abortion in the Constitution.  In other words NARAL and its allies NEED politically activist judges, and are threatened by judges, like John Roberts, who interpret the Constitution as it is written. 

Planned Parenthood and NARAL's ally, the so-called Alliance for Justice, already has an 18-page dossier attacking Roberts on their web page, and Senate confirmation hearings haven't even begun yet. Obviously, it is going to be a nasty battle in the coming weeks. 

Pro-abortion groups have reportedly raised over $50 million dollars to pressure Senators to block the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court.  Their ultimate goal may be to use the filibuster to prevent a fair up-or-down vote and defeat his nomination. 

National Right to Life is fighting back with a grassroots campaign to get Judge Roberts a fair up-or-down vote. To succeed we will need your help, not only now, but throughout the coming months.

        Everyone knows that this fight will only intensify as more Justices retire in the not-too-distant future, as is expected. In addition, National Right to Life needs to have the resources to conduct other important battles in Congress, such as the fight to ban human cloning, to keep the ban on taxpayer funding of deadly embryonic stem cell experiments, and to pass a bill that would prevent minor children from being taken across state lines for secret abortions. 

With all of this coming together at once, and with the summer months typically a slow time for donations, National Right to Life's resources are literally stretched to the breaking point.  Please help us at this time with a generous gift to help advance the cause of life. 

See the box on this page for easy ways you can contribute to our life-saving work.  Thank you for being a Life-Saver!