John Roberts

Although I am mostly just thanking my lucky stars that Bush II did something moderate for once, I read an interesting critique of Mister Roberts this weekend. Although Roe versus Wade being overturned is what gets everybody's panties knotted up (which is odd because I am pretty sure it still would be 5-4 even if 2 pro-lifers are put on), Roberts has some very conservative views about the powers of a president. Depending on how you look it, we have either placed more checks on a president since Vietnam/Watergate or we have eroded the powers of the president since then. It appears Roverts is in the latter camp.
He has worked under both Reagan and Bush #1 and wrote various memos protecting presidential aggression; for example saying it was okay to send troops to Grenada without declaring war. Now, he was just doing his job at the time, but he's made other recent troubling decisions like saying Cheney had the right to not disclose any records from his energy task force meetings and being on the 3-judge panel that okayed the Guatanamo militatary commissions (that allowed evidence under coercion, gave no appeal process, and stated that violations of the Geneva Convention are international issues not eligible for lawsuits). Dubya + Roberts + possibly Gonzales could make for some scary future abuses of the War on terror. Stay tuned.