It looks like U.S. Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts wasn't grown in a vat after all. The New York Times reports that Roberts provided pro bono legal advice to the gay respondents (plaintiffs below) in Romer v. Evans, a 1996 Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of a Colorado initiative to ban local ordinances that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Romer wasn't exactly a gay rights case. It presented some rather technical issues related to federalism, standards of review and legislative intent in direct democracy situations, and Roberts only consulted on the case for a few hours. Still, the Christian right is up in arms.
Roberts' involvement is a surprise to Senate Republicans. The guy seems so off-puttingly perfect that I almost find it comfortingly human that he "forgot" to disclose the case on his Senate questionaire. I have to imagine that the Bush administration didn't know either.
Fierce personal loyalty is one of Bush's trademark personality traits, so I expect him to stand by his man. But will Senate conservatives do the same? I've heard Roberts likened to Rehnquist by boosters and to Souter by skeptics. Perhaps the better comparison is with Anthony Kennedy.
Posted by Marie Gryphon on August 5, 2005