Pat Robertson's View on Judge John Roberts

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," August 15, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: A debate over Judge John Roberts's nomination to the Supreme Court continues to heat up. Earlier Monday the National Archives released 5,000 pages of documents related to Roberts' work during the Reagan administration. Some records cover hot button issues like abortion and school prayer.

The release of the documents comes on the heels of pressure from Democrats for more information.

Now, last week, California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer (search) said she would vote against Judge Roberts unless he clarifies his position on abortion and privacy rights. Will Republicans be able to rally enough support for President Bush's nominee?

Joining us now is the founder and chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, the Reverend Pat Robertson.

Reverend, welcome back.

REV. PAT ROBERTSON, FOUNDER/CHAIRMAN, CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK: Thanks, Alan.

COLMES: You know he's going to get in. Most Democrats are not speaking out against him. There may be a few who probably have some difficulties, but this is really not a question about whether or not this is going to be a done deal, right?

ROBERTSON: I don't think there is any question about it. He's an outstanding nominee, but you mentioned Barbara Boxer. I'm absolutely appalled at what she had to say. I don't know if you read all the transcripts.

COLMES: I did.

ROBERTSON: But she says first, "I've got to wait on Ralph Neas (search) of the People for the American Way to see what he says about it." She's supposed to be a senator from the biggest state in America.

And then she says, "I'm going to follow the lead of Chuck Schumer. I trust him." And he's the senator from New York, of course.

And then she picked up on that phony NARAL (search) ad, which accused Roberts of supporting abortion bombings, which was nonsense. He was involved in a case of ours, the American Center for Law and Justice that we won in 1963 before the Supreme Court, which said that you can't apply the Ku Klux Klan act to peaceful protests outside of abortion clinics.

And they tried to spin that eight or nine years down the road and make it sound like he was in favor of bombing. Even NARAL pulled the ad and I understand they fired the person responsible for it. But Barbara Boxer picked up on that falsehood.

COLMES: Here's the concern. What she said was she wanted to know where he stood on privacy, something that Ruth Bader Ginsberg (search), who was a consensus nominee suggested by Orrin Hatch, said that she was for privacy in the Constitution.

The case of Brave v. Alexandria, where he said that those who block women going to clinics don't discriminate against women when they intimidate and block women from entering clinics. That's a concern to women. Why shouldn't it be?

ROBERTSON: Well, what they were trying to do is apply the Ku Klux Klan, which had to come after a class. It had to do with trying to have mobs to lynch black people after the Civil War. And this obviously didn't apply to a peaceful demonstration. We have a right in the First Amendment to speech.

Now, as far as this right to privacy, this is a, "penumbra." The case that decided it was Griswold v. Connecticut. It was a 1954 case. And, you know, it was pulled out of whole cloth. The Constitution doesn't say anything about a right to privacy, but it was made up. And it's been in there. And that was the basis of Roe v. Wade, which probably is bad law.

But I don't think Roberts is going to get hung up on that. He may be thinking it's right. I don't know.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Pat, welcome back, Reverend Robertson. Welcome back. Good to see you again.

ROBERTSON: Good to see you, too.

HANNITY: I want to talk about the double standard. Ted Kennedy (search) — we aired this tape right here on this program — said Thurgood Marshall shouldn't answer any questions.

Yet Ruth Bader Ginsberg, former ACLU (search) general counsel, a woman who once supported, as it has been argued legalizing prostitution, was against separate prisons for men and women and even argued that it's possible to have a constitutional right to polygamy.

She said, no hints, no forecasts no previews. Now, there is a litmus test. A religious litmus test and an abortion litmus test. How should Republicans handle this duplicity?

ROBERTSON: I think they ought to throw the Kennedy remarks right back in their face. I think they ought to show the hypocrisy of this whole thing. All it is is a stalling tactic, just to put a little mud on this man. That's all it is.

And I think he has a perfect right not to say anything about a case that will be before the Supreme Court. Especially on abortion. He's got two cases on abortion coming before the court. And every — he just shouldn't do it. He shouldn't speak on it.

HANNITY: Now, with that said, I agree with you, I don't think he should. I think he should follow the Ginsberg rule, and I hope he does and they should use that Kennedy quote and throw it right back in Ted's face.

Now, the issue of his involvement in this Romer case, which is not just any case about gay rights, one of the key cases, along with Lawrence, that many argue paves the way for the right of gays and lesbians to marry, does that concern you as a very outspoken social conservative?

ROBERTSON: Well, it does except in that case, as I understand, he was hired as a lawyer, and you know, lawyers are supposed to defend their clients. They don't have to necessarily agree with them.

HANNITY: It was a pro bono case his firm had taken on, if he didn't really believe in that case, would that be one he should recuse himself from?

ROBERTSON: He could have but it's a drawing, like it's your turn now and go take it. But I don't think that under this world, he believes in that Lawrence v. Texas decision but I haven't talked to him. I don't know.

HANNITY: Let me put the question this way. We were told by Sununu, we were told by Warren Ruddman that David Souter (search), don't worry, he's a right-winger. He's a conservative. Don't worry. And look what happened.

Should conservatives look closely at that and say that they are concerned, because they don't want another David Souter? As a matter of fact, seven of the nine current justices were appointed by Republicans, and a couple of them turned out to be pretty liberal.

ROBERTSON: You remember what Eisenhower said: "I made two mistakes in my presidency, and both of them are sitting on the court."

HANNITY: Yes, indeed.

ROBERTSON: It's amazing how many of those really horrible judges have been put in by Republicans. And you know, I talked to Sununu. Sununu was a good friend of mine, and I just said, "I trust you. What's the deal?"

Well, Warren Ruddman laughed. He laughed later on in at how he'd pulled the wool over Sununu's eyes in that decision. That man has been the worst, in my opinion, of any judge on the court and we knew nothing about him. You're right. He was a stealth candidate.

COLMES: Ginsberg did answer the abortion question. She said she was for women's right to choose. So she did answer...

HANNITY: She didn't answer...

She didn't answer 39 questions.

COLMES: She said, "I'm for a woman's right to have a right to have an abortion." That's what she said.

ROBERTSON: Well, you know, Ginsberg was general counsel for the ACLU. They've been the most anti-religious group in the United States. How she ever got through, I don't know.

COLMES: Pat, well, we'll have to disagree about that. We thank you, Reverend, for being with us.

ROBERTSON: Thank you.

HANNITY: We thank you, Reverend for joining us.

ROBERTSON: Thank you.

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