AlonzoMourning23
05-07-2008, 05:04 PM
May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain, seeking to shore up conservative support, vowed to model his Supreme Court appointees after George W. Bush's and accused his Democratic opponents of favoring ``activist'' judges.
McCain today said Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ``don't seem to mind at all when fundamental questions of social policy are preemptively decided by judges instead of by the people and their elected representatives.''
The speech, given at the Wake Forest University chapel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, marked McCain's most detailed comments on his criteria for appointing judges. McCain hailed Bush's appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, as ``jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference.''
A number of prominent conservatives have voiced concern that McCain might compromise on his judicial appointments. McCain was a member of the ``Gang of 14,'' a bipartisan group that steered a middle course and averted a showdown over Bush's judicial nominations in the Senate in 2005.
Today's speech will alleviate some of those worries, said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice. Calling the speech a ``coalescing moment,'' Sekulow said he had spoken to fellow conservatives who were cheered by McCain's remarks.
`Concrete Statement'
McCain ``said the words that needed to be said, especially with regard to Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito,'' Sekulow said. ``The conservatives needed a concrete point of attachment, a concrete statement from him, and that's what we got.''
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement that McCain ``promised his conservative base four more years of out-of-touch judges'' who would limit abortion rights and overturn campaign- finance regulations.
Clinton policy director Neera Tanden said in a statement that McCain had voted for ``extreme conservative judges,'' including Justice Clarence Thomas.
The next president may have an opportunity to fill multiple Supreme Court vacancies. Four justices are over 70, including 88- year-old John Paul Stevens and 75-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Because Stevens and Ginsburg are by some measures the court's most liberal members, a McCain presidency has the potential to shift the balance of the court.
Capital Punishment
McCain, 71, took aim at a 2005 Supreme Court decision that barred capital punishment for murderers who were under 18 at the time of the crime. Without describing to his audience the legal issue the court resolved, he said the effect of the ruling was to ``brush off the standards of the people themselves and their elected representatives.''
McCain also criticized another 2005 high court ruling, a 5-4 decision that said government agencies can constitutionally take property for use as a private development.
``In the hands of a narrow majority of the court, even the basic right of property doesn't mean what we all thought it meant since the founding of America,'' he said.
The senator, who was introduced by former Bush administration Supreme Court lawyer Theodore Olson, began his speech by almost misidentifying the host university.
``I appreciate the hospitality of the students and faculty of West Virgin--of this great, great Wake Forest University,'' McCain said. ``I am catching up with my speech here.''
Opposing Roberts
In his remarks, McCain pointed to comments Obama made in 2005 when the Illinois senator announced his opposition to Roberts. Obama said that the toughest Supreme Court cases ``can only be determined on the basis of one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works and the depth and breadth of one's empathy.''
McCain said Obama's comments ``attempt to justify judicial activism.'' McCain said Obama and Clinton, 60, would accept only ``an elite group of activist judges, lawyers and law professors who think they know wisdom when they see it.''
In opposing Roberts, Obama, 46, pointed to the nominee's track record in Republican administrations. Obama said Roberts ``has far more often used his formidable skills on behalf of the strong in opposition to the weak.''
McCain said the ``Gang of 14'' paved the way for the confirmation of both Roberts and Alito.
``And it showed that serious differences can be handled in a serious way, without allowing Senate business to unravel in a chaos of partisan anger,'' he said.
Abortion Rights
Roberts and Alito have voted to restrict abortion rights, to limit efforts to make schools more racially diverse and to shield governments from lawsuits accusing them of illegally supporting religion. They also voted to limit the reach of a federal campaign-finance law that McCain sponsored.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said in a statement that McCain espoused a ``radical, right-wing judicial philosophy.''
McCain separately today announced that Olson and Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas will serve as chairmen of the campaign's advisory committee on judicial issues.
Olson's participation should provide additional assurances about McCain's approach toward the judiciary, said Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a Washington group that advocates appointment of conservative judges.
``The fact that he selected Ted Olson has gone a long way,'' Levey said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4s0JNUAMvSE&refer=home
McCain today said Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ``don't seem to mind at all when fundamental questions of social policy are preemptively decided by judges instead of by the people and their elected representatives.''
The speech, given at the Wake Forest University chapel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, marked McCain's most detailed comments on his criteria for appointing judges. McCain hailed Bush's appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, as ``jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference.''
A number of prominent conservatives have voiced concern that McCain might compromise on his judicial appointments. McCain was a member of the ``Gang of 14,'' a bipartisan group that steered a middle course and averted a showdown over Bush's judicial nominations in the Senate in 2005.
Today's speech will alleviate some of those worries, said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice. Calling the speech a ``coalescing moment,'' Sekulow said he had spoken to fellow conservatives who were cheered by McCain's remarks.
`Concrete Statement'
McCain ``said the words that needed to be said, especially with regard to Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito,'' Sekulow said. ``The conservatives needed a concrete point of attachment, a concrete statement from him, and that's what we got.''
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement that McCain ``promised his conservative base four more years of out-of-touch judges'' who would limit abortion rights and overturn campaign- finance regulations.
Clinton policy director Neera Tanden said in a statement that McCain had voted for ``extreme conservative judges,'' including Justice Clarence Thomas.
The next president may have an opportunity to fill multiple Supreme Court vacancies. Four justices are over 70, including 88- year-old John Paul Stevens and 75-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Because Stevens and Ginsburg are by some measures the court's most liberal members, a McCain presidency has the potential to shift the balance of the court.
Capital Punishment
McCain, 71, took aim at a 2005 Supreme Court decision that barred capital punishment for murderers who were under 18 at the time of the crime. Without describing to his audience the legal issue the court resolved, he said the effect of the ruling was to ``brush off the standards of the people themselves and their elected representatives.''
McCain also criticized another 2005 high court ruling, a 5-4 decision that said government agencies can constitutionally take property for use as a private development.
``In the hands of a narrow majority of the court, even the basic right of property doesn't mean what we all thought it meant since the founding of America,'' he said.
The senator, who was introduced by former Bush administration Supreme Court lawyer Theodore Olson, began his speech by almost misidentifying the host university.
``I appreciate the hospitality of the students and faculty of West Virgin--of this great, great Wake Forest University,'' McCain said. ``I am catching up with my speech here.''
Opposing Roberts
In his remarks, McCain pointed to comments Obama made in 2005 when the Illinois senator announced his opposition to Roberts. Obama said that the toughest Supreme Court cases ``can only be determined on the basis of one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works and the depth and breadth of one's empathy.''
McCain said Obama's comments ``attempt to justify judicial activism.'' McCain said Obama and Clinton, 60, would accept only ``an elite group of activist judges, lawyers and law professors who think they know wisdom when they see it.''
In opposing Roberts, Obama, 46, pointed to the nominee's track record in Republican administrations. Obama said Roberts ``has far more often used his formidable skills on behalf of the strong in opposition to the weak.''
McCain said the ``Gang of 14'' paved the way for the confirmation of both Roberts and Alito.
``And it showed that serious differences can be handled in a serious way, without allowing Senate business to unravel in a chaos of partisan anger,'' he said.
Abortion Rights
Roberts and Alito have voted to restrict abortion rights, to limit efforts to make schools more racially diverse and to shield governments from lawsuits accusing them of illegally supporting religion. They also voted to limit the reach of a federal campaign-finance law that McCain sponsored.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said in a statement that McCain espoused a ``radical, right-wing judicial philosophy.''
McCain separately today announced that Olson and Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas will serve as chairmen of the campaign's advisory committee on judicial issues.
Olson's participation should provide additional assurances about McCain's approach toward the judiciary, said Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice, a Washington group that advocates appointment of conservative judges.
``The fact that he selected Ted Olson has gone a long way,'' Levey said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a4s0JNUAMvSE&refer=home