[Mb-civic] Conservatives and the Supreme Court - Thomas Oliphant - Boston Globe

[William Swiggard]

Conservatives and the Supreme Court

By Thomas Oliphant  |  September 6, 2005

IN MODERN TIMES, conservative philosophies have proved skillful at 
winning elections but intriguingly deficient at governing a huge and 
diverse nation -- as Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and two Bushes have 
shown from the White House and William Rehnquist showed for nearly two 
decades as Chief Justice.

The question -- now that President Bush has an opportunity that no 
president has had since Richard Nixon broke true-blue conservative 
hearts some 34 years ago -- is whether there is a conservative doctrine 
that can guide the Supreme Court and bring the country along politically 
in its wake. If there is, the stakes for Rehnquist's successor, and 
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's as well -- not to mention the country -- 
are huge.

But I wonder.

Conservative philosophy concerning the Constitution was an enormous part 
of the package of ideas that helped Richard Nixon win the White House in 
1968. At a time of domestic turmoil, and after a long period of dramatic 
and controversial expansions of civil rights and federal power, Nixon 
offered order.

The slogans about the Supreme Court that dominated his rhetoric then are 
still around us today -- strengthening the forces of law and order, 
strictly interpreting the Constitution, avoiding the temptation to 
simply achieve policy results and ''legislate" from the bench, and 
deferring to legislatures instead of ''activist" federal judges.

But something happened on the way to the revolution conservatives hoped 
for. Nixon named a consolidator, Minnesota's Warren Burger, to replace 
Earl Warren as chief justice. And after defeats over his nominations of 
very different Southern conservatives (Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold 
Carswell), he nominated two more non-activists, Lewis Powell and Harry 
Blackmun -- anticipating Ronald Reagan's choice of O'Connor and Bush I's 
choice of David Souter.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/06/conservatives_and_the_supreme_court/
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