Roberts gives some idea of views, avoids addressing specific cases

Published: 2005-09-14

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In hours of probing by senators, Supreme Court nominee Judge John 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, a 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. A committee vote on his nomination was likely Sept. 16, with a vote of the full Senate as soon as the following week. The 18 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee over two days in mid-September conducted two rounds of questions asking Roberts about his qualifications and suitability for a lifetime appointment as chief justice. But much of the senators' time at the microphone was devoted to explaining their own views of legal and political issues ranging from U.S. poverty to the presidential power to declare war. Roberts declined to answer dozens of questions over the course of the hearing about how he would rule on certain types of cases, including those that might reconsider Roe vs. 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.

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