Bush’s 2nd Term isn’t over

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Old news, but Jeffrey Toobin writes a profile of US Supreme Court Justice John Roberts and shows that he is a jurist who sides with those in power over the liberties of the general citizen. Nominated by President Bush in 2005, the relatively young justice will serve for years to come:

And this, ultimately, was the source of Roberts’s frustration—and not just in this case. In a series of decisions in the past four years, the Chief Justice has expressed the view that the time has now passed when the Court should allow systemic remedies for racial discrimination.The previous week, the Court heard a challenge by a group of white firefighters in New Haven who were denied promotions even though they had scored better than black applicants on a test. Roberts was, if anything, even more belligerent in questioning the lawyer defending the city. “Now, why is this not intentional discrimination?” he asked. “You are going to have to explain that to me again, because there are particular individuals here,” he said. “And they say they didn’t get their jobs because of intentional racial action by the city.” He added, “You maybe don’t care whether it’s Jones or Smith who is not getting the promotion,” he said. “All you care about is who is getting the promotion. All you care about is his race.”

via John Roberts and the Supreme Court : The New Yorker.