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attempt to rescind the delayed deporta-
tion program for so-called Dreamers.
And Hewitt called Roberts’ decision
upholding the Affordable Care Act in
2012 “a masterpiece of Supreme Court
history.”
“My conservative friends don’t like to
hear it. My liberal friends don’t like to
hear it. The extremes at both ends of the
political spectrum don’t read columns,
so they won’t hear or see it,” Hewitt
wrote at The Washington Post. “But it is
the simple truth: John G. Roberts Jr. is a
terrific chief justice of the United States,
and history will record him as such.” Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court speaking in

Pence’s comments about Roberts 2007. Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ National Law Journal

followed recent criticism lodged by U.S. Sen. Josh Severino, a former clerk to Justice Clarence
Hawley, R-Missouri, against Roberts and the court Thomas, noted that Justices David Souter, Anthony
for its abortion rulings. Hawley, a member of the Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor all had weighed
Senate Judiciary Committee, said last month he in in some public form against Roe v. Wade before
would not support any Supreme Court nominee un- joining the Supreme Court. But when they took
less he or she had stated publicly before nomination their seats on the court, she said, they voted to sup-
that the landmark abortion precedent, Roe v. Wade port the abortion right.
was “wrongly decided.” “Hawley’s test is not only vastly overinclusive,
“I will vote only for those Supreme Court nomi- greenlighting justices he would certainly not want
nees who have explicitly acknowledged that Roe v. to support, but also underinclusive,” Severino wrote.
Wade is wrongly decided,” Hawley, who clerked for She pointed out that Thomas, the court’s most stri-
Roberts in 2007 and 2008, said in an interview with dent critic of Roe v. Wade and who has said many
The Washington Post. “By explicitly acknowledged, times he would overturn the decision, would not
I mean on the record and before they were nomi- have earned Hawley’s support based on his state-
nated.” ments at his confirmation hearing.
Responding to Hawley’s abortion litmus test for Pence affirmed that Trump plans to issue a new
Supreme Court nominees, Carrie Severino, presi- list of would-be Supreme Court nominees, mirror-
dent of the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, ing similar disclosures in the run-up to the 2016
called the test “false advertising” in a piece this week presidential election.
at The Federalist. Some Democrats have pressed Joe Biden, the
“The announcement has earned headlines for presumptive Democratic presidential contender,
Hawley, who is tapping into the understandable to release a list of potential Supreme Court picks.
frustration renewed among conservatives in the af- Biden has committed—if he’s elected, and if there’s
termath of the Supreme Court’s most recent term,” a Supreme Court vacancy—to appoint the first-ever
Severino wrote. “But his new test is manipulative Black female justice.
false advertising, for two reasons: (1) he knows it “We are putting together a list of a group of Afri-
won’t work, and (2) it stops short of demanding a full can American women who are qualified and have
commitment from judicial nominees that they would the experience to be on the court,” Biden said last
overturn Roe v. Wade, which is what many conserva- month. “I am not going to release that until we go
tives want, but that he has been unwilling to call for.” further down the line in vetting them.”
¦

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