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Senator Kennedy pretty much nailed it today in his questioning of Judge Roberts.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but President Bush's nominee for Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, has, in refusing to voice support for the "effects" clause of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (i.e., the said clause in Section 2, as amended in 1982), taken the following view of the nation's legacy of racism (a paraphrase of the upshot, with all the legalese drained away):
It's okay for racist government officials to design and implement voting schemes which purposefully seek to intimidate and/or preclude black citizens from exercising their fundamental right to vote, so long as A) the officials don't get caught doing it, and/or B) the officials do get caught, but there's insufficient proof that they intended what they actually intended.
This is the reason the 1965 Voting Rights Act now has (since 1982, and thanks to Democrats) an "effects" clause: to distinguish between racist "intent" (which, as white conservatives well know, given their august history, is impossible to prove) and racist "effects," which can and routinely are proven to exist in our nation's voting procedures.
It's outrageously shabby and false for John Roberts to speak eloquently of the franchise, on the one hand, and to speak glowingly of Brown, on the other hand, and then refuse to conjoin the two in a vision of voting rights which is anything at all like color-blind. At some point willful ignorance of the ongoing problem in our nation's elections system becomes malevolent ignorance; and at what point is that? When thousands of blacks wait in line to vote in Ohio in 2004--while white folks have no wait at all--or only when hooded Klansman are lynching any dark-skinned citizen they can find in a bygone Civil War-era America?
Is our sense of moral indignation really that narrowly-drawn? Is that really the best we can do, as Americans? Indeed, does that even meet the barest standards of human decency in the year 2005?
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
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3 comments:
I think the Roberts nomination was pathetic.
The second youngest Chief Justive ever? What the f*ck did he do to deserve that? Mindlessly pursuing the racist and sexist goals of the Reagan adminstration doesn't go far for me.
Did he win a war? Lead a legal struggle of national import? No, nothing.
Craptacular.
A real meritocrat would have appointed a reasonably senior, but not ancient, member of the Circuit Court, not someone who has been a judge for TWO YEARS.
The only good thing is that Antonin Scalia will fume for the rest of his life. With all of Bush's pronouncements about the greatness of Scalia, and the fact that O'Connor and Rehnquist were the only two Cons on the bench senior to him, he could practically taste it.
He didn't get it, and he never will.
It's not about justice or merit with these people, it is about power.
Pathetic. And no one is writing about how inexperienced this guy is. I don't care how many arguments he has had before the Court. It isn't the same job as being the Chief Justice. And I've heard him argue twice or more, and I was not impressed! At all!
I think George W. Bush should think a little bit harder on his nominations, especially for a post as important as this one. A racist remark like the one Judge Roberts shows how callous and ignorant the Bush administration is.
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