On the third day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on John Roberts’ nomination as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roberts continued to stonewall Senators on issues important to women. In refusing to answer questions about end-of-life issues posed by Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), Roberts said that his consideration of those issues would not “be based on my personal views. They will be based on my understanding of the law.” Biden responded, “That’s what I want to know about because without any knowledge of your understanding of the law, because you will not share it with us, we are rolling the dice with you, Judge.”
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) tried to probe deeper into Roberts’ views on the scope of the right to privacy, asking if the “marital” right to privacy Roberts mentioned on day two of the hearings “extends to single people, as well as married people.” Roberts said, “The courts held that in the Eisenstadt case, which came shortly after Griswold, largely under principles of equal protection, and I don’t have any quarrel with that conclusion in Eisenstadt.” Roberts’ answer echoed that of Justice Clarence Thomas, who in response to a similar question during his confirmation hearings said, “[T]he Court has found such a right of privacy to exist in Eisenstadt v. Baird and I do not have a quarrel with that decision.”
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