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.