The trick to reading the news is knowing the little code words that conservatives use.

Roberts told Specter that he respected the doctrine of stare decisis -- letting decided issues stand -- adding, "I do think it is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent." But some long-standing cases deserve to be overturned, he said, such as those that legalized slavery in the 19th century and racial segregation in the 20th century.

Not even John Roberts' strongest backers are trying to portray him as a staunch civil rights advocate. Roberts successfully argued against an assembly line worker who had developed severe bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome and tendinitis. Roberts also wrote, "... "whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good."

This is not a man who spends time worrying about issues of equality.

The reason Roberts mentioned slavery being overturned is the Dred Scott case. President Bush mentioned Dred Scott during the 2004 presidential debates. The President didn't seem to be worried about civil rights when he proposed a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

Dred Scott has been a conservative code word for abortion. See this Google search for yourself.

The problem is when conservatives say what's really on their mind the American public rejects their ideology. If conservatives really feel so strongly about Dred Scott then they should do more for civil rights. Abortion and slavery are not one and the same.

Conservatives that mention Dred Scott don't mention that convert racism of the John Birch Society. The conservative bible, the National Review published the editorial Why the South Must Prevail.

"The central question that emerges . . . is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not prevail numerically? The sobering answer is Yes – the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race. It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the cultural superiority of White over Negro: but it is a fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists."
"National Review believes that the South's premises are correct. . . . It is more important for the community, anywhere in the world, to affirm and live by civilized standards, than to bow to the demands of the numerical majority."

"The South confronts one grave moral challenge. It must not exploit the fact of Negro backwardness to preserve the Negro as a servile class. . . . Let the South never permit itself to do this. So long as it is merely asserting the right to impose superior mores for whatever period it takes to effect a genuine cultural equality between the races, and so long as it does so by humane and charitable means, the South is in step with civilization, as is the Congress that permits it to function."

Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have long ties to Bob Jones University. The school has practiced various forms of racial segregation over the years. I wonder how Dred Scott would feel about that.

(Crossposted at Last Day of My Life)

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Posted by: Marty at September 15, 2005 09:22 AM