WSJ: Nefarious Ties - Judge Roberts & the Federalist Society

From the Wall Street Journal:

The reasons to worry about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts continue to accumulate. First we learned he attended Harvard, which is always suspicious. Then the New York Times informed us that his wife, who is also a Catholic lawyer, not only worked pro bono for Feminists for Life but has in the past "attended Mass several times a week." Holy mackerel.

Then yesterday brought the Washington Post's scoop that Judge Roberts may once have been a card-carrying member of the Federalist Society. Mr. Roberts has said that he doesn't recall belonging to the lawyers' outfit. But in the best tradition of Woodward and Bernstein, Post reporters dug through the society's "secret" enrollment lists and -- there it was, in black and white, the name of John Roberts, member 1997-98. This news actually made page one.

The Post's exposé continues: "The Federalist Society was founded in 1982 by conservatives who disagreed with what they saw as a leftist tilt in the nation's law schools. The group sponsors legal symposia and similar activities and serves as a network for rising conservative lawyers." That's a subversive group if there ever was one, not least because we've seen with our own eyes that representatives of the ACLU have sometimes attended these public "symposia," and without disguising their identities.

We don't know whether these news stories illustrate the desperation of liberals who can't find any real mud to throw at Judge Roberts, or whether they've been planted by the White House to make liberals look silly. Come to think of it, liberals these days don't need any White House help.

[More]

My Comments:
I'm not very happy with the decision of the White House to distance itself and Judge Roberts from the Federalist Society. It unfairly taints those of us who have a present or past affiliation/membership with an organization of 35,000 lawyers, law students, and scholars.

How many potential judicial nominees will be excluded from consideration in the future, having been deemed "too extreme" because of an affiliation with this fine organization?

UPDATE (7/27/2005)
Hat tip: Southern Appeal

In today's Wall Street Journal, Manuel Miranda - former counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist - takes the White House to task for its poor handling of Judge Roberts' involvement in the Federalist Society, and notes the deterrent effect it could have on those interested in joining the organization:

The 'Evil Cabal' Of Conservative Lawyers
The White House should have stood up for the Federalist Society.

BY MANUEL MIRANDA
Wednesday, July 27, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT

Three years ago Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) stood on the floor of the Senate and said: "Mr. President, I take the opportunity today to right a wrong. Over the past two years, members of the Federalist Society have been much maligned by some of my Democrat colleagues, no doubt because they see political advantage in doing so. The Federalist Society has even been presented as an 'evil cabal' of conservative lawyers. Its members have been subjected to questions that remind one of the McCarthy hearings of the early 1950s. Detractors have painted a picture which is surreal, twisted and untrue."

Here we go again.

***
Judge Roberts's ties with the Federalist Society are not the story. If Judge Roberts is not a member, he's not a member. But the White House should not be in the business of appearing to disassociate itself from its friends. By running to correct media reports last week that Judge Roberts was a member of the Federalist Society, the White House created an issue where none existed. It should have left it to the press or Democrats to unveil this great mystery. To add injury to insult, the move now has the appearance of having been bungled with the Washington Post's discovery of Judge Roberts's name on a Federalist Society list from 1997-98.

Why should the White House have stayed silent? Several reasons. As we should know by now, the left loves to come up with conspiracy theories; responding to them only encourages this kind of scare-mongering. Also, by responding to the reports, the White House legitimized an attack on good people who may include future judicial nominees, including the president's next Supreme Court pick.

In addition, it harms a GOP-friendly society of lawyers that depends on membership dues for support. Students and lawyers with visions of future confirmation hearings dancing in their heads may now think twice before joining the Federalist Society. (I am sending in my application and dues today and I urge others to do the same.)

But there is an even better reason for why the White House should have stayed quiet: loyalty. As today's slang goes, the president's staff should "represent." In appearing to put sunlight between Judge Roberts and the Federalist Society, the White House staff did not represent the man for whom they work. Rudy Giuliani writes about loyalty in his book "Leadership." He calls it a leader's "vital virtue."

[More]