Confirmation on schedule
WASHINGTON, September 22 – The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted in favor of John Roberts’ nomination for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The votes were divided by 13 against five. All ten Republicans voted in favor of course and three Democrats sided with them to back Roberts’ nomination. It is expected that the full Senate, which will probably vote sometime next week, will follow this voting round and thus confirm Roberts as Chief Justice.
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, senior Democrat on the panel, and fellow Democratic Senators Russell Feingold and Herbert Kohl, both of Wisconsin, voted in favor of confirmation. Among the Democrats who voted against Roberts is Diane Feinstein of California, she explained that she felt that Roberts neglected to take the many chances he had to speak out clearly against changing any precedents, like the legendary Roe v. Wade case.
It is surprising to see that there isn’t even unity among the Democrats, the chamber’s top Democrat Harry Reid spoke out against confirmation earlier yet the committee top Democrat Leahy voted in favor of Roberts. This division says enough about the reason why Roberts couldn’t be stopped, if the Democrats cannot even internally agree on such an important issue how could they ever put a stop to confirmation hearing like this?
