People for the (Un)American Way’s predictable attack on John Roberts is remarkable for its feebleness. Once you get past the breathless adjectives that PFAW was ready to invoke against anyone the President would have nominated, PFAW leads with four briefs that Roberts co-authored as Deputy Solicitor General in President George H.W. Bush’s administration.
The American people fully understand that a lawyer is obligated to advocate the positions of his client. That is exactly what Roberts did.
PFAW’s characterization of the government’s briefs is also amusingly disingenuous. For example, PFAW claims that the government’s brief in Lee v. Weisman, which argued that the Establishment Clause should be construed in a manner that is faithful to American traditions (imagine that!) was “radical”. It is, of course, groups like PFAW, who seek to have the courts strip “under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance and wipe out the American tradition of promoting respect for religion generally, that are the real radicals.
Don’t expect these inane attacks to stop, as PFAW needs to try to justify its existence and raise money.