The Catholic Standard and Times

Roberts confirmation ‘phenomenal,’
say area Catholics

By CHRISTIE L. CHICOINE
CS&T Staff Writer

Area Catholics are rallying around fellow Catholic John G. Roberts, who on Thursday, Sept. 29, was confirmed as the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice.

In a statement issued Sept. 29, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said the day was historic not only for the Supreme Court, but for the nation: “In my 11 years in the Senate, this is the first opportunity I have had to vote on a Supreme Court nominee, and I can think of no one more qualified and worthy to fulfill the role of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court than Judge Roberts.

“I had the privilege to meet with [him] shortly after President Bush nominated him to the Supreme Court. In our conversation, he used terms such as ‘humility’ and ‘modesty’ when describing the role of a judge in the judicial process,” he said. “I was pleased to vote in favor of Judge Roberts.”

Robert J. O’Hara Jr., executive director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, said Roberts’ confirmation process “gave us all confidence that he would not prejudge any case despite the efforts of his antagonists on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to force him to do so.”

O’Hara added that Roberts “seems like a very sharp, intelligent man who will bring a good legal mind to the Supreme Court.”

John P. Stanton, 78, executive director of the Pro-Life Union of Southeastern Pennsylvania, also had preliminary praise for Roberts. Stanton said he was “mostly content” about the confirmation, “but we really won’t know if he’s in the mold of [Associate Justice Antonin] Scalia and [Associate Justice Clarence] Thomas until he rules.”

Stanton, a member of Immaculate Conception B.V.M. Parish in Jenkintown, Montgomery County, who is a father of 12, grandfather of 41 and great-grandfather of one, said Roberts “conformed to the mechanics of getting through the process with the anti-life senators.”

Added Stanton: “I thought it was notable, too, that his Catholicism became a point. Frankly, I don’t feel too bad about that.”

Archdiocese of Philadelphia native Helen Alvaré, 44, a former director of information and planning for the U.S. bishops’ pro-life office, also rallied behind Roberts. “I just think it’s phenomenal,” she said.

Raised in St. Philomena Parish in Lansdowne, Delaware County, Alvaré is an associate professor at the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

“I think he’s going to be an extremely intelligent, clear judge who does not read things into the Constitution that aren’t there,” she said.

That, she added, “simply means, if we want things that aren’t there, we’ll go through the process to get them. But we won’t be surprised.”

In hours of probing by senators, Roberts answered some questions about his views on rulings related to abortion and other life issues, and parried efforts to get him to predict how he might rule on such cases.

Roberts, 50, a former judge of the District of Columbia federal appeals court, also addressed some questions about the role his Catholic faith would play in his court decisions.

Over the course of the hearing, he declined to answer dozens of questions about how he would rule on certain types of cases, including those that might reconsider Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, and those addressing subjects such as end-of-life care, the Voting Rights Act and the limits of presidential powers.

Early during questioning Sept. 13, however, Roberts said he recognizes as “settled precedent” that the Constitution grants a right to privacy, the legal basis of Roe, and that the “settled expectations” of society include a legal right to have an abortion.

On later questions aimed at determining whether he thought Roe or other rulings should be overturned, Roberts declined to answer.

It was the Republican chairman of the committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who asked Roberts how his Catholic faith would affect his work.

Specter asked Roberts whether he would agree with a quote from a 1960 speech by then-Senator John F. Kennedy to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, in which Kennedy said he was not “the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, who happens also to be Catholic. I do not speak for my Church on public matters — and the Church does not speak for me.”

Roberts said he agreed with Kennedy’s statement, and that when it comes to legal rulings, he bases his decisions on the facts, the law and the Constitution.

“There’s nothing in my personal views, based on faith or other sources, that would prevent me from applying the precedent of the court faithfully,” he said.

In response to later questions, he said he rules strictly on the basis of law, not on his faith: “I don’t look to the Bible or any other religious sources.”

The next day, in response to questions about right-to-die cases, Roberts said it would be inappropriate to comment on cases that might come before the court. “I will confront them with an open mind. They won’t be based on my personal views. They will be based on my understanding of the law,” he said.
In response to a question about death penalty cases, Roberts said that if four justices were to vote to stay an execution and a fifth vote was necessary to enable an appeal, he would cast the fifth vote, adding, “I think that practice makes a lot of sense.”

Later, Roberts was asked whether he thought there was a risk that an innocent person might be wrongly executed for a crime.

“There’s always a risk in human endeavors,” he told Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.). But the provision for mandatory review at various court levels, the possibility of clemency, and other steps built into the system reduce the risk, he said.

“There’s always a risk,” Roberts said. The most effective way of minimizing that risk is to ensure that people charged with capital crimes “have the best counsel available.”

As if having a new chief justice, and soon a new associate justice on the Supreme Court, weren’t enough, [at press time, President Bush had nominated Harriet Miers to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor] the October term also will bring a busy session of cases that have implications for churches and their interests.

The justices were starting their first week with a case on the constitutionality of Oregon’s law permitting assisted suicide. Furthest out on the court’s calendar to date is a case just accepted for early 2006 that raises questions about a campaign finance law that had restricted the type of ads that Wisconsin Right to Life was allowed to run during last year’s congressional election campaign.

The docket also includes cases dealing with how the death penalty is applied in different states, laws affecting minors who want abortions, and protesters outside abortion clinics.

After opening Oct. 3 with Chief Justice John Roberts presiding, the court’s makeup will change again, perhaps as soon as this fall.

When she announced her retirement in June, Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said she would stay until her replacement is on the bench.

The day before the opening of the Supreme Court term, Washington’s Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick lauded Roberts’ Senate confirmation as “a period of greater civility in the selection of our chief justice.”

At the annual Red Mass that traditionally precedes the court’s opening, Cardinal McCarrick asked for continued civility when he addressed the congregation at St. Matthew Cathedral, which included President Bush, new Chief Justice Roberts and White House Counsel Miers, who was nominated the next morning to replace O’Connor.

Cardinal McCarrick greeted the dignitaries, who also included four Supreme Court associate justices, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and hundreds of people involved in law and politics. He said those in different parties and with different points of view should work together for the common good.

Roberts was confirmed to his post Sept. 29 by a vote of 78-22. “I pray that civility will continue,” the Cardinal added, “because it is so important not just for good government, but for the good care of our people, who look here to all of you and your colleagues for the kind of leadership that is not destructive and not too intensely partisan.”

The 52nd annual Red Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral drew a standing-room-only crowd of 1,450 people. Others had to be turned away because the church was full.

Catholic News Service contributed to this story.

CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine can be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.