WW Special Edition - "The Roberts Hearings"
WW Special Edition - "The Roberts Hearings"
Washington Week Show - WWSE0102C1 - WW Special Edition "The Roberts Hearings" (DUPLICATE of Master # 12206) Host Gwen Ifill, guests include Linda Greenhouse and Jeanne Cummings. 21.07.16 Composite footage (unclean) with title: various clips of Senate Judiciary Committee members and John Roberts during opening statements. 21.08.27 DO NOT USE - commercial 21.09.07 Chairman Arlen Specter holding up large board representing the Supreme Court decisions upholding Roe v. Wade. 21.09.30 JOHN ROBERTS: I do think that it is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent, a precedent plays an important role in promoting stability and even handedness. It is not enough and the court has emphasized this on several occasions, it is not enough that you may think the prior decision was wrongly decided, that really doesn't answer the question, it just poses the question. Chairman ARLEN SPECTER: Judge Roberts, in your confirmation hearing for circuit court your testimony read to this effect and it's been widely quoted, Roe is the settled law of the land. Do you mean settled for you, settled only for your capacity only as a circuit judge, or settled beyond that? JOHN ROBERTS: Well, beyond that it's settled as a precedent of the court entitled to respect under principals of (?) and those principals applied in the Casey case explain when cases should be revisited and when they should not, and it is settled as a precedent of the court, yes. 21.10.48 Senator HERBERT KOHL (D) Wisconsin: Do you agree with that decision and that there is a fundamental right to privacy as it relates to contraception in your opinion, is that settled law? JOHN ROBERTS: I agree with the Griswold courts conclusion that marital privacy extends to contraception and availability of that. HERBERT KOHL: Well, I'm delighted to hear you say that because as you know, many constitutional scholars believe that once you accept the reasoning of Griswold and find that the Constitution does contain a right to privacy and a right to contraception that you've essentially accepted, scholars have said this, essentially accepted the basis for the courts reasoning and decision on Roe, that a woman has a Constitutional protected right to choose. JOHN ROBERTS: Well, I feel comfortable commenting on Griswold and the result in Griswold because that does not appear to me to be an area that is going to come before the court again. The other area, is an area to quote Justice Ginsberg from her hearings "live with business", there are cases that arise there and so that is an area that I do not feel appropriate for me to comment on. 21.11.53 Back in the studio with Gwen Ifill, Linda Greenhouse and Jeanne Cummings. 21.16.01 Senator EDWARD KENNEDY (D) Massachusetts: I'm deeply troubled by a narrow and cramped and perhaps even a mean spirited view of the law that appears in some of your writings. In the only documents that have been made available to us, it appears that you did not fully appreciate the problem of discrimination in our society, you do agree don't you Judge Roberts that the right to vote is fundamental constitutional right? JOHN ROBERTS: It is preservative I think of all the other rights, without access to the ballot box people are not in a position to protect any other rights that are important to them and so I think it's one of, as you've said the most precious rights we have as Americans. 21.16.40 Back in the studio with Gwen Ifill, Linda Greenhouse and Jeanne Cummings. 21.19.43 Senator DIANNE FEINSTEIN: You can't answer my question yes or no? JOHN ROBERTS: Well, I don't know what you mean by absolute separation of Church and State. I don't know what that means when you say absolute separation. I do know this, that my faith and my religious beliefs do not play a role in judging. When it comes to judging, I look to the law books and always have, I don't look to the bible or any other religious source. 21.20.08 Back in the studio with Gwen Ifill, Linda Greenhouse and Jeanne Cummings.