Rudy definitely helped himself by speaking to the Federalist Society convention. But the speech bizarrely didn’t deliver on one key issue and people noticed. Walking around the Mayflower here, many a social conservative lawyer will ask what was more colorfully put by one professor: “How in the f*** can you talk about judicial activism…and the rule of law, and not end with the single greatest affront to these — Roe?….”
They will also point out to you that he used the phrase “freedom of choice” during the speech. It could not have been a mistake, “it was a signal to libertarians here not to worry,” one said to me.
The relevant part of the speech:
And Abraham Lincoln said, “The best American is the American who understands our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, our values of political freedom, economic freedom, the rule of law, freedom of choice, freedom of decision-making, freedom for people. People who understand what our country is all about. That’s the one that makes the best American.”
When Rudy went through a litany of 2nd Amendment, racial quotas, and keeping America’s courtrooms safe for the Ten Commandments, I figured Roe-wrongly-decided had to be next. Nope.