Wave Maker: Roberts' Work on Gay Rights Case a Curve Ball

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Thursday, August 04, 2005

Roberts' Work on Gay Rights Case a Curve Ball

Courtesy of Ann Althouse, I learn that, while in private practice at Hogan & Hartson, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts worked pro bono on behalf of the plaintiffs who challenged a voter-approved 1992 Colorado initiative that would have allowed employers and landlords to exclude gays from jobs and housing.

The L. A. Times reports:

Then a lawyer specializing in appellate work, the conservative Roberts helped represent the gay rights activists as part of his law firm's pro bono work. He did not write the legal briefs or argue the case before the high court, but he was instrumental in reviewing filings and preparing oral arguments, according to several lawyers intimately involved in the case.....

....Jean Dubofsky, lead lawyer for the gay rights activists and a former Colorado Supreme Court justice, said that when she came to Washington to prepare for the U.S. Supreme Court presentation, she immediately was referred to Roberts....

"Everybody said Roberts was one of the people I should talk to," Dubofsky said. "He has a better idea on how to make an effective argument to a court that is pretty conservative and hasn't been very receptive to gay rights."...

She said he gave her advice in two areas that were "absolutely crucial."....

....She said Roberts served on a moot court panel as she prepared for oral arguments, with Roberts taking the role of a Scalia-like justice to pepper her with tough questions.When Dubofsky appeared before the justices, Scalia did indeed demand specific legal citations from the lower-court ruling.

"I had it right there at my fingertips," she said."John Roberts … was just terrifically helpful in meeting with me and spending some time on the issue," she said. "He seemed to be very fair-minded and very astute."

I think this is marvelous.

What is Nan Aron going to do with this information? I hope she chokes good and hard on it.

And how about those on the hard right who are privately nervous because they haven't received rock-hard reassurances that Roberts will do their bidding? Oh, there'll be some hand-wringing on this, for sure.

Good.

The only thing conservatives are entitled to get from this conservative President is the nomination of a candidate of impeccable qualifications, character and integrity who has credibly espoused a philosophy of judicial (not political) conservatism.

And the only thing liberals are entitled to is a candidate of impeccable qualifications, character and integrity. It seems to me that this is another example of a man whose humanity and professionalism trump ideology.

I can't wait to have him on the Court.

Posted by: Wave Maker / 11:49 AM/ |