Topic: Fairly Interpreting the Civil Rights Law
Senator: Hatch
Date: SEPTEMBER 14, 2005
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HATCH: Now, also yesterday, the Democrat staff of the committee released a press release stating that you failed to distance yourself from what it called your earlier cramped positions on Title 9 and women's rights.
After listening to you yesterday, I did not find your earlier positions cramped at all. In fact, as you explained here to the committee, many of the documents that questioners relied upon reflected the positions of the Reagan administration for which you worked.
HATCH: Now, what assurance can you give the committee that you will fairly interpret the civil rights laws including critical statutes such as Title IX, fully and fairly, consistent with the purposes Congress intended in passing these laws?
ROBERTS: Well, I can give the commitment that I appreciate that my role as a judge is different than my role as a staff lawyer for administration.
As a judge, I have no agenda. I have a guide in the Constitution and the laws and the precedents of the court and those are what I would apply with an open mind, after fully and fairly considering the arguments and assessing the considered views of my colleagues on the bench. That's the way I would approach cases in that area as in any other area.
The approach of someone who's obviously a staff lawyer in an administration is very different. The approach of someone who's an advocate for a client before the court is obviously very different.
Those are positions that I have held in the past. I am now a judge, and I have had the experience, and I think my record will establish that that is how I approach cases across the spectrum of issues that are raised before the courts.
HATCH: And reasonable people can differ on some of these issues.
ROBERTS: Oh, certainly.
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