Partial Birth Abortion Cases Will Indicate What President Bush Has Wrought

Over the last six years, President Bush has provided little evidence that he carries many conservative credentials. Therefore, it’s a little hard to understand why many Christians and conservatives are so euphoric over his nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito to the supreme court. After all, this is the same man who thought that Harriet Miers belonged on the highest court in the land.

Judicial appointments, especially supreme court nominations, were major ammunition in both of the president’s campaigns, and rightly so. These nominations are among a president’s most important powers.

Every president has the right to nominate judges who have shown a tendency to render decisions that are in accord with whatever the president’s judicial philosophy may be. President Clinton didn’t think twice about nominating Ruth Bader Ginsburg, an ACLU general counsel and member of the ACLU board of directors, to the court. Republican senators promptly rolled right over, and the nomination sailed through 98-2.

Both Roberts and Alito have virtually impeccable legal qualifications. But, despite the howling of demagogue senators such as Schumer and Leahy, neither one had given any indication of leaning anymore than slightly to the right philosophically. The president pointedly passed over several eminently qualified candidates who could indeed be termed conservative. Among the more notable were Janice Rogers Brown, US Court of Appeals, DC circuit and J Michael Luttig, US Court of Appeals, 4th circuit.

It was, typically, more important for the president to demonstrate his willingness to “get along” than to take a strong stand and fight to place badly needed conservative votes on the court.

However, in truth, no one really can be sure how a nominee will vote after being confirmed. Justice Anthony Kennedy is certainly not the conservative voice that President Reagan thought he would be. And President Bush 41’s David Souter has proven to be a happy surprise for liberals. So for all we know, Justices Roberts and Alito may very well turn out to be roaring conservative lions. Here’s hoping, but there is a lot at stake with these two men, and for a long time to come.

We should soon have an indication of how the new justices will tend to rule in cases pertaining to the sanctity of life.

A critical first step in sanctity of life issues is the country’s struggle to ban the horrific procedure of partial birth abortion. During the Clinton administration congress had passed two different bills banning the procedure. On both occasions, President Clinton towed the line of those he was beholding to and ruthlessly vetoed them.

In 2003 congress passed, by wide margins in both the senate and house, another federal ban on partial birth abortion. Various arms of Abortion, Inc immediately filed suits and managed to judge-shop three cases in which the federal ban was deemed unconstitutional. Two of the cases, (Attorney General) Gonzalez v. Carhart and Gonzalez v. Planned Parenthood are now before the supreme court.

In 2000, the high court found state bans against partial birth abortion to be unconstitutional. At the time, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor voted with the majority, but Justice Anthony Kennedy was a surprise among the dissenters voting with then Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Anton Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

The current hope is that President Bush has provided the fifth vote to uphold the constitutionality of the 2003 federal ban by replacing Sandra Day O’Connor with Samuel Alito. Of course this also depends on new Chief Justice Roberts maintaining the Rehnquist vote.

A great many Christians and conservatives feel that President Bush has done very little to justify their faith in casting the votes that literally put him into office. During both campaigns, he pledged that he would change the face of the supreme court should he have the opportunity. Justices Roberts and Alito are fine legal scholars, but are they the faces that we had hoped for?

We pray that our president looked deeply into his heart when he made those two supreme court nominations. For it is most likely those two votes that will decide the fates of those future unborn who will otherwise suffer the painful death inflicted by partial birth abortion.

Note: On April 18, 2007 the US Supreme Court upheld the ban on partial birth abortion.