After Recent Ruling, Schlafly Questions Justice Roberts' Conservatism
by Chad Groening
June 20, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Pro-family activist Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Forum believes United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has been more interested in bipartisanship and consensus than in taking a strong conservative stand. One of his latest rulings, she notes, was particularly disappointing. | | 
Phyllis Schlafly |
Schlafly says she had hoped the appointments of Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito would help put the Supreme Court back on a conservative course. However, she says Roberts did not take a strong stance on the Solomon Amendment, which forbids colleges and universities that receive federal funding to deny military recruiters access to their campuses. Conservatives were hoping for a Thomas or a Scalia among Bush's recent appointments to the high court bench, Schlafly asserts, and she would have liked to see a strong pro-military stance here, issuing from an unequivocally conservative jurist. But clearly, she observes, "Justice Roberts is not that." And apparently, the pro-family activist adds, "in this case pertaining to the Solomon Amendment, he thought consensus and unanimity more important than staking out a strong message."
Schlafly believes Justice Roberts was too focused on bringing Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer on board. "The decision was sort of watered down to achieve consensus," the Eagle Forum founder asserts, "and I see no reason why we needed to get Ginsburg and Breyer to sign on to it. They are liberals; they don't like the military."
Justice Roberts' opinion contained "unfortunate language" reminding anti-war liberals that they could protest the presence of U.S. Armed Services recruiters on college campuses if they so desired, Schlafly contends. "Well, big news," she says. "The liberals don't need any reminding that they have free-speech rights. That isn't the point." The point, she insists, is that liberal protesters felt free to do more than protest.
Shortly after the decision, the conservative leader notes, radical students at the University of California - Santa Cruz physically chased military recruiters from the campus. "And the Bush administration has done nothing about it," she laments.
Schlafly believes that incident might never have happened if the Roberts Supreme Court had not watered down the Solomon Amendment's force with its ruling. She suggests that the American people may have been duped by the supposedly conservative justice's appointment to the high court bench.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
