Confirmation Hearings Of John Roberts

To be honest, I had never put much thought into the importance of the job of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, until I started watching the confirmation hearings for Judge John Roberts. I did not think about how much a person's moral or political views could possibly affect the entire nation in the aspect of certain precedent set by the court.

I found it interesting, and reassuring to see how in depth the Senate went with their questioning of Judge Roberts. The fact that they kept going back to key precedent set by the court such as a woman's right to choose, the separation of powers, and equal rights just to name a few, seemed as if they felt it was important to know how Judge Roberts felt about these issues.

Another thing that was intriguing to me was it seemed to me that the majority of key political questions were coming from Democratic Senators. Republican Senators were asking questions about key political views also, however they did not seem to go as far in depth as the Democratic Senators.

For example, during one thirty-minute session, Senator Edward Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, asked questions about civil rights. Such as, "Do you believe today that we need the federal laws to assure that all our citizens have the equal access to the voting booth, and do you basically support the 1982 Voting Right Act?" He went on to ask Judge Roberts if he had any doubts about the constitutionality of other civil rights acts.

In another thirty-minute session with Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa there were also questions raised on the issue of civil rights, but they seemed a bit more vague. For example, Senator Grassley asked questions such as, "Could you tell us what your role was as an assistant to Attorney General Smith in developing the Reagan policy on the Voting Rights Act?"

It seems as thought the Republicans are more interested in the things Judge Roberts has done