John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#0John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 7:10pm
From Salon.com:
Over at the online home of the Senate Democratic Caucus, there's a place to submit questions you'd like to ask John G. Roberts. Some of the posters at Free Republic seem to have one in mind: What does that "G" stand for, anyway?
Wonkette joked about Roberts' heterosexual bona fides a couple of weeks ago: He went to an all-boys school! He wrestled! He played Peppermint Patty in a production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"! But with the revelation today that Roberts helped gay rights activists persuade the Supreme Court to overturn Colorado's anti-gay Amendment 2 in the 1990s, some voices on the right seem to be taking the question of Roberts' sexual orientation a little more seriously: Roberts came to the aid of gay rights activists ... he didn't get married until he was 41 ... his children are adopted ... could it be?
"This is really upsetting news," writes a Free Republic poster identified as lady lawyer. "Roberts is a guy who has been positioning himself for power all of his life. Is the late-acquired wife just part of that positioning?" L.N. Smithee chimes in: "I think lady lawyer has a significant concern." Smithee seems troubled that Roberts didn't list the Colorado case in his response to the Senate Judiciary Committee's question about pro bono work he has done. "Why was this not on his CV?" Smithee asks. "Why did he attempt to hide this?"
To be fair, lady lawyer allows that it's "more than possible" that Roberts is "not gay," even as she says it's reasonable to posit the question. "I think it is important if anyone in a position of power has an agenda to overturn all traditional morality to accommodate his or her favorite perversion," she writes. And most of the Freepers do seem more concerned that Roberts might be sympathetic to homosexuals than afraid that he is one. "A good lawyer does not work for free in a landmark case to advance gay rights," writes lawdude. "A liberal RAT does." A poster called jtminton speaks for a lot of his conservative compatriots: "If this guy's pro-gay," he writes, "I don't want him anywhere near the Supreme Court."
#2re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 7:17pm
Pshaw, Wonkette.
Everyone knows Peppermint Patty is not a character in YAGMCB. The "Patty" in that show is a different Peanuts character. 
#3re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 7:20pm
"I think it is important if anyone in a position of power has an agenda to overturn all traditional morality to accommodate his or her favorite perversion,"
"A good lawyer does not work for free in a landmark case to advance gay rights," writes lawdude. "A liberal RAT does."
This is either hilarious or horrifying. I can't decide.
#4re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 7:29pm
I prefer to call it symptomatic. They can only abide activism when it includes rolling back civil rights and women's rights, not advancing them.
But I still say wait and see. This guy's got far more in the radical right column than one instance of pro bono, pro homo.
#5re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 7:37pmYeah--I'm not going to feel as satisfied with my right to marry if I know there are women killing themselves with coat hangers.
TheatreDiva90016
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/10/04
#6re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 7:41pmJohnny and I dated briefly in the 80's.....
#7re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 7:46pmok--I admit it. I think he's HOT.
#8re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 8:03pm
I'm sorry. I just love this thread:
"How dare those Democrat, Leftist liberals try to get in our beloved President's way of appointing the justice he wants!!!! This man won't legislate from the bench!!"
then suddenly:
"How dare the President appoint this man to be in our Supreme Court! He would be an activist judge!!"
#9re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 10:19pm
Before you get the idea that John Roberts would somehow be "good for the gays," remember that he is staunchly against the right to privacy, which would be the end of gay rights in the US.
He also:
* supported regulatory changes that would have permitted the federal funding of discrimination against women, minorities, people with disabilities, and older Americans (Washington Post, July 26 )
* argued that Congress should strip the Supreme Court of authority to rule on cases regarding abortion, school prayer, and certain school desegregation remedies (New York Times, July 28 )
* argued that affirmative action programs were bound to fail because they required "the recruiting of inadequately prepared candidates" (New York Times, July 28 )
* criticized the Supreme Court decision forbidding organized prayer in public schools
* sought to expand the ability of prosecutors and police to question suspects out of the presence of their attorneys (Washington Post, July 26 )
* and argued that the Justice Department should not intervene on behalf of female prisoners who were discriminated against in a job-training program (New York Times, July 28 )
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#10re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 11:22pmWhat are you expecting from this administration, a liberal candidate? The thing I find reassuring about Roberts is that while he's undoubtedly a political conservative, he's also a legal conservative. The man likes his stare decisis, which means he won't be as eager as, say, Scalia to take hacksaw to old Warren Court decisions and ways of thinking. And his work on the Colorado case is evidence of that- legally, it wasn't so much about gay rights as about the crap that state was trying to pull just to deny those rights. The Court (by no means a gay-friendly institution) saw that, and evidently Roberts did too.
#11re: john roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 11:26pm
don't you get it plum? no nominee may be approved until a democrat resides in the white house no matter what! the court can function with 6 or 7 justices until 2016 or so, can't it?
oh wait, once we get 60 senators in '06 we'll be able to appoint mr. ed's corpse and get him approved. nevermind.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
#12re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 11:27pm
A lot of people are assuming that since he did that pro bono work, he'll be gay-friendly. I don't think his record makes that likely.
brdlwyr
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/14/05
#13re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 11:32pm
Papa - that last post was annoying.
Plum and PJ - this man will be confirmed by the Senate. I am hoping that he will be a thoughtful Justice and not a hack like Scalia and that partially retarded Thomas.
#14re: john roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 11:41pm
lwyr, justice johnson...uh, i mean thomas' pubic hair speaking from the coke can (god i love ebay) has asked me to relay to you that he (the justice, not the pubic hair) is not retarded. his mama always told him stupid is as stupid does.
and which part was more annoying? the first or the second?
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
#15re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 11:43pmBrd--I think you're right.
brdlwyr
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/14/05
#16re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 11:45pm
mr. ed's corpse and get him approved. nevermind.
annoying.
#17re: john roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 11:47pmi'm sorry, i never took you for a mr. ed fan. i am sorry to imply that he might have been a republican.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
#18re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 11:49pmGoing to sleep, Brd. I guess you'll have to do the intervention yourself.
#19re: john roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/4/05 at 11:58pmnow, lwyr, you know the senate would never stand for the nomination of the corpse of a celebrity horse to the supreme court, i mean sure he'd get some votes in committee, but his nod would get scuttled.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
Plum
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/4/04
#20re: john roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/5/05 at 12:10amI have to disagree with the "Scalia's a hack" assertion. Yeah, he's definitely been outright wrong and even foolish sometimes (his take on public forums doctrine is just awful stuff), and heaven knows his politics are about as different from mine as it's possible to be, but he's not stupid and he's not a hack. Thomas...well, let's just say he's got Scalia's politics without, for the most part, the same level of thinking.
#21re: john roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/5/05 at 12:14am
Of course everyone here thinks the BLACK justice is the stupid one...
(I promise I'm not serious 
)
brdlwyr
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/14/05
#22re: john roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/5/05 at 12:20am
Ping - my comment was a political comment and a joke. Let's make that clear. Justice Thomas is not known for agressive decision writing and he is ultra conservative, so thus I made that comment.
Updated On: 8/5/05 at 12:20 AM
#23re: john roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/5/05 at 12:44amI totally believe you, no worries :0)
#24re: John Roberts supports the gays, so he must be a mistake
Posted: 8/5/05 at 8:10am
Very funny column from Bilmon on the correlation between John Roberts's plaid pants and that pro bono work he did for The gays:
===
No. It's unthinkable. Somehow, in some way, Roberts's dalliance with the forces of darkness must be the filthy liberals' fault. (I can already hear Hindrocket's tiny brain grinding its gears.)
I know! Maybe Roberts was seduced. You know how it goes: It's the oldest story in the book. The wife is out of town and the kids are off at camp. You've always wanted to experiment with the alternative legal lifestyle, and this time you just can't resist. So you pull on the tight plaid pants, put on just a trace of the missus's mascara, and wander down to that law library you've heard about -- the one where all the liberals go. And that's how it happens. You read a little William O. Douglas, knock back a few 9th Circuit opinions, and the next thing you know, you're going at it pro bono with some hot young hunk from the ACLU. And suddenly you realize what you've been missing all your life.
It's society's fault really: the permissiveness, the pornography, the purple silk underwear with the Federalist Society logo on the crotch. It's so damned easy for a good, repressed Catholic to go astray. Just ask Rick Santorum -- if you can pull him off his dog.
But Roberts's mid-life legal crisis poses a dilemma for us lefties, too. Should we snuggle up to the judge and encourage him to come out of the closet completely? Should we start dropping little hints about the Lambda fundraiser we saw him at, or the time we spotted him having a cozy candlelight supper with Ralph Neas? Or would that blow so many fuses at Focus on the Family that Bush would be forced to drop Roberts like, well, a Talon News reporter?
Straight Judges Don't Wear Plaid
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