During Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for the Solicitor General position in the Department of Justice, Democrats interrogated conservative ideologue nominee Theodore B. Olson regarding his anti-woman’s rights, anti-affirmative action history. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) asked Olson the pointed question, “Could it be your agenda to overturn Roe v. Wade?” Olson responded, “It is not my agenda to seek an opportunity to overturn” Roe. However, Committee democrats expressed skepticism about Olson’s ability to be impartial on issues of affirmative action, abortion, woman’s rights, and ecological preservation. “I can’t find any parallel in history of anyone who has been so actively partisan in his legal practice and then went on to be the Solicitor General,” said Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL).
The Solicitor General represents the US government before the Supreme Court and plays a key role in deciding in which cases the US will intervene. Some see the solicitor general as a 10th Justice and a stepping-stone to nominating a conservative Justice to the Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on Olson’s confirmation for Solicitor General as soon as April 26.
