I Hope He's As Bad As They Say

I have not carefully examined John Roberts' record, but a good rule of thumb in situations like this is to look at what a man's opponents are saying about him. The two main complaints about Roberts–that he may think Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and that he may be sympathetic to those old-fashioned "judges and scholars who believe Congress is limited in the laws it may enact, leaving some issues to the states," as The New York Times puts it–sound like good points to me. Roe v. Wade, after all, was wrongly decided, at least if you think that it's a bad idea to trample on federalism and pull constitutional rights out of thin air. And it would be nice to have a new justice on the Supreme Court who hews to the quaint view that the Constitution imposes limits on congressional power. I hope Roberts is guilty as charged.