Busted at the U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court unveiled a white marble bust of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who was remembered as an exceptional lawyer, a skillful judicial administrator and an avid tennis player.
The $50,000 marble portrait of the influential conservative jurist wearing his judicial robe will join the busts of 15 other former chief justices in a prominent hallway before the entrance to the courtroom. Rehnquist died from cancer four years ago after serving on the nation’s highest court for more than 33 years.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who once worked for Rehnquist as a Supreme Court law clerk and then succeeded him, and Justice John Paul Stevens, both described Rehnquist as a great chief justice at a special ceremony Thursday.
James Duff, a top aide to Rehnquist, recalled how the chief justice also wrote four books, played tennis and enjoyed watching sports — especially college football — and singing songs.
Duff said Rehnquist appreciated brevity and would have been particularly pleased the speakers at the ceremony had a five-minute limit.
Son James Rehnquist recalled that his father, formerly at a small law firm in Arizona, had become a top Justice Department attorney during Richard Nixon’s presidency.
He recalled how his father, drinking apple juice and eating vanilla wafer cookies at the family home in Virginia, broke the news to him in 1971 that Nixon would be announcing two appointments to the Supreme Court.
Roberts, Obama jumble presidential oath of office
WASHINGTON – It was merely a formality and it’s probably a few phrases that both Barack Obama and Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts have practiced several times, but the leader of the Supreme Court may have been just a tad nervous when he got one word of the presidential oath of office a little out of order.
Obama smiled slightly when he realized that Roberts, a fellow Harvard Law School graduate, misplaced the word “faithfully” during the oath. but the new president joined in the fun and repeated it the way Roberts initially administered it. (Lest we forget, in the Senate Obama voted against confirming Roberts to the high court. Last week Obama met with him and the other Supreme Court justices during a courtesy call.)
Here is how the oath is supposed to be administered: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
And here’s how it went:
ROBERTS: I, Barack Hussein Obama…
OBAMA: I, Barack…
ROBERTS: … do solemnly swear…
I Would like to redistribute your wealth. Please to remind the man that he took an oath in God’s name to preserve protect and defend … not to find fault with, look for “flaws”, and shred the Constitution. Messing up on the word “faithfully” was an ominous sign. Can a President be impeached for betraying the oath to office?
Biden pulls U.S. Supreme Court card in election fight
DENVER – Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden is urging voters to think about what type of justices they want on the U.S. Supreme Court before they decide who they want in the White House.
Biden said U.S. President George W. Bush’s two conservative appointees — Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito — have pushed the nation’s highest court far to the right.
This, Biden charged, has threatened civil liberties and set back efforts to desegregate schools and obtain equal pay for women.
“Other than ending the war in Iraq, the single most significant thing that Barack Obama can do — and I hope I’ll be able to he help him — will be to determine who the next members of the Supreme Court are going to be.”
“It will effect the lives of all of our children,” Biden told a roundtable discussion with working mothers hosted by Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
During the next four years, Biden said, citing life expectancy estimates, there may be as many as three vacancies on the nine-member court.
“It’s not merely the woman’s right to choose (to have an abortion) which is at stake,” Biden told a mostly female crowd of several hundred people.
Obama’s responses were strange at the Saddleback Forum.
My Favorite moment during the forum was the Clarence Thomas moment – simply priceless!
And there you go, another one thrown under the wheels of the Obama Nation Tour Bus!
At least Grandma and Jeremiah Wright have company!
The Saddleback Forum will go down as a pivotal moment in this election. We got to see how they conducted themselves ‘Live’ without the aid of TELEPROMPTERS and live ‘feed’.
This is what we get folks:
An inexperienced Lawyer, whose ‘Nuanced” rhetoric could bore a coma patient with his long winded propaganda.
Or an American Patriot whose life, and his family history has been one of honor and service to our nation.
Hands down McCain wins.
