NARAL Ad Unfairly Attacks Roberts

The advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America (National Abortion Rights Action League) has released a television ad (viewable here) which links Supreme Court nominee John Roberts with violent anti-abortion activists. The campaign, which urges viewers to call their senators and request that they oppose Roberts' confirmation, is based on a brief that Roberts wrote back in 1991 while working as deputy solicitor general in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

In the case of Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic, the Bush Administration argued that the anti-discrimination provisions of the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act did not apply to anti-abortion protesters. Roberts wrote a brief on behalf of the Administration, and later argued the case before the Supreme Court. In his argument, he said in part "The United States appears in this case not to defend petitioners' tortious conduct, but to defend the proper interpretation" of the Ku Klux Klan Act. As the LA Times reports today, Roberts went on to say that "[t]he century-old law applied only to a 'discriminatory deprivation of rights, not simply the deprivation of rights,' he said. 'Opposition to abortion is [not] the same as discrimination on the basis of gender. That's wrong as a matter of law and logic,' he said. Many women as well as men oppose abortion, and it is not because they hate women, he argued." The Supreme Court agreed with Roberts' conclusion in a 1993 decision.

NARAL's ad features a woman injured in a 1998 abortion clinic bombing saying she is "determined to stop this violence," and includes a voiceover saying "Supreme Court nominee John Roberts filed court briefs supporting violent fringe groups and a convicted clinic bomber." After urging viewers to call their senators, the ad ends by saying "America can't afford a justice whose ideology leads him to excuse violence against other Americans." The ad will begin airing this week on local stations in Maine and Rhode Island (the home states of pro-choice Republican senators Olympia Snowe and Lincoln Chafee, both up for reelection next year) and on CNN and Fox News nationally.

It is not often that I agree with the the chairman of the RNC, but Ken Mehlman has it right on this: "By attempting to assert that Judge Roberts supports shameful criminal acts, NARAL has shown how far they will go to slander a good man for political gain." This ad crosses the line between decent debate over Roberts' stance on the issues and unfair attack, by implying that Roberts somehow supports or condones violent attacks against abortion clinics. There is absolutely nothing in the record to justify such a conclusion; in fact, the opposite may be closer to the truth.

According to Roberts allies, the nominee supported the conclusion of the Reagan White House back in 1986 that violent protesters should not be eligible for special consideration to receive presidential pardons: "No matter how lofty or sincerely held the goal, those who resort to violence to achieve it are criminals," the Reagan Justice Department held in a memo which Roberts endorsed.

NARAL's president said of the ad "We're not suggesting that Mr. Roberts condones clinic violence." Okaaay, what exactly does "America can't afford a justice whose ideology leads him to excuse violence against other Americans" mean, then? That is exactly what they're suggesting, in a blatant attempt to inflame passions and derail the civil-to-this-point confirmation process.

I hope that senators will completely ignore this ad campaign, and I hope that all those around the country who view the ad will take the time to find the truth. This is probably the first of many volleys to come - from both left and right - that will distort the record of Judge Roberts unfairly. It will be up to our political leaders to keep to the high road, and let these interest groups slog through the muck on their own.