WRITING IN THE NEW REPUBLIC, Bill Stuntz offers a lukewarm review of the Roberts pick: “But in the end, the political risk-taker in the White House decided not to take risks: He picked the sane, smart, and safely conservative John Roberts. . . . In other words, more a Rehnquist than a Scalia. . . . But the Rehnquist model may be better suited to politics than to law.”
UPDATE: Randy Barnett has some similar thoughts:
John Roberts is who you get when the President finally nominates the “best qualified” candidate. I mean truly best qualified as measured by college and law school degrees (both Harvard), grades (summa, Harvard; Magna, Harvard Law School), clerkships (Friendly, Rehquist), post law school job (Chief Deputy SG), big prestigious law firm job. He is widely reputed to be considered by the Justices themselves as among the very best Supreme Court oral advocates around today. And no one dislikes him.
But what sort of Justice will Judge Roberts make? I have no idea. I have never met him, so all I have to go on is his public record–a record of enormous accomplishment. But so far as I know, we know nothing about what he stands for apart from the fact that he is undoubtedly politically conservative. Is he an originalist? We don’t know. Is he a majoritarian conservative like Robert Bork? We don’t know. Would he find any limits on the enumerated powers of Congress? We don’t know. Would he have ruled with the majority in Kelo? We don’t know.
Read the whole thing.
ANOTHER UPDATE: On the other hand, Democratic reader Harvey Schneider, who frequently sends me critical emails, seems more enthusiastic about Roberts:
As an independent/libertarian who leans Democratic, I have this to say about Roberts. Good. After the liberal core of the court decided Kelo and Medical MJ, screw the liberals. Naral and NOW don’t like it? Too bad. They have one issue, and don’t seem to care about federalism, Private Property rights, or compassion for terminally ill patients. Since they seem to have it figured out I guess they don’t need my support. Besides, despite my generally pro-choice position, after fathering two children, my view has changed a little bit. Abortion up until 5 minutes before birth is not something I support unconditionally anymore.
Hmm. Expertise and credentials as a blow against interest groups on both sides? Is Bush that subtle?