A match made in heaven? Photograph: EPA
A good one stop shop for background on John Roberts Jr, nominee for the Supreme Court, is the fast-changing Wikipedia entry under his name. It has all the key data, although there is a delicate liberal tilt in the way some facts are presented in juxtaposition with the man's record on court judgements. For example:
Roberts has also argued on behalf of the National Mining Association in support of the legality of mountaintop removal, in the case Bragg v. West Virginia Coal Association. 125 people had been killed and 50 million dollars in damages caused 30 years earlier in West Virginia when a mountaintop removal or MTR valley-fill burst.
On the U.S. Court of Appeals, Roberts wrote a dissenting opinion in a case involving the protection of a rare Californian toad under the Endangered Species Act. The basis of his opinion was not that the act had been incorrectly applied, but that the developer's freedom of action was being restricted by a "hapless toad" that "for reasons of its own lives its entire life in California."
On reading the whole entry anyone who didn't know better could come away thnking this guy is dyed-in-the-wool God-fearing, pro-life, pro-big business, anti-environmental protection, anti-civil rights and anti-toad.
Not surprising then that blog posts around the world about Mr Roberts are coming in at a rate of around 20 per hour. And that's while the US is fast asleep.
