Ain't Gonna Let That Elevator Break Us Down

To hear the party line from the media and the Republicans, asking John Roberts his opinion on anything is akin to slapping his grandmother. And so if you want to know anything about a guy who's headed for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you either need Dion Warwick or maybe a nice reputable phrenologist. But after repeated protest (and probably some significant editing) the National Archives have released thousands of pages of his writings done as part of the Reagan and Bush I administrations.

The line that really hit me was:

The memo was among more than 5,000 pages of documents released yesterday. Some of the data also offered further insights into Roberts's views on such matters as equal pay for women in the workplace, the rights of terrorists, and even the merits of Michael Jackson and Prince
[emphasis mine].

Yeah, forget privacy and property rights, someone needs to stand up and ask this guy, does he really think "Musicology" is the comeback it's made out to be, or is Prince merely a shadow of his former self?

Other tidbits include:

Rehnquist has argued that the Constitution does not demand absolute neutrality or even ''hostility" to religion. O'Connor has been more skeptical, particularly in cases such as school prayer and displays of the Ten Commandments on government property. The documents released yesterday suggest that Roberts's view may be closer to Rehnquist's than to O'Connor's.

In his files, Roberts kept a copy of Rehnquist's dissent from the 1985 ''moment-of-silence" case, espousing the future chief justice's oft-stated view that the Constitution only prevents Congress from declaring an official national religion.

...

Memos released earlier showed him writing skeptically about race-conscious affirmative action programs.

The 1984 memo shows him similarly critical of a court ruling that intended to address a pay gap between men and women.

In 1983, a federal judge had ruled in favor of a group of women who said they had been paid less than men for work of equal worth. The judge based his ruling on a study that indicated that traditionally female jobs, such as secretaries, and traditionally male jobs, such as truck drivers, each produced the same ''worth" of work product, but the secretaries were paid less.

Three Republican congresswomen at the time -- Olympia Snowe of Maine, Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island, and Nancy Johnson of Connecticut -- wrote to the White House, urging the Reagan administration not to suppport the company's appeal of the judge's ruling.

Roberts's memo strongly disagreed, dismissing their argument of a ''comparable worth" disparity between men and women.

The legislators' letter, Roberts wrote, pointed out that women still made 60 cents for every dollar for men, while ''ignoring the factors that explain that apparent disparity, such as seniority, the fact that many women frequently leave the workforce for significant periods of time, etc."

He added: ''I honestly find it troubling that three Republican representatives are so quick to embrace such a radical redistributive concept. Their slogan may as well be, 'from each according to his ability, to each according to her gender.' "
[emphasis mine]

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