Village Voice
by Nat Hentoff

09/09/05

In chilling contrast, let us look at Bush nominee for chief justice John Roberts. When he was a judge, on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, he ruled significantly in a 2004 case, Hedgepeth ex rel. Hedgepeth v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. As you consider his conception of justice, would you confirm John Roberts as chief justice of the United States, now that he has been nominated by Bush? The facts of the case are detailed by constitutionalist John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, which helped provide a lawyer to the mother of the plaintiff: 'On October 23, 2000, 12-year-old Ansche Hedgepeth ... arrived at a Washington, D.C., Metro station to catch the train home.' She put one of the french fries she'd bought in her mouth. 'Immediately, a police officer demanded she put down her french fries and remove her backpack. Although Ansche never resisted or failed to cooperate with the officer, she was told to place her hands behind her back and she was handcuffed.' Ansche was informed she had broken the law against eating in a subway station, and her shoestrings were removed by a policeman, who searched her. ... The likely future chief justice John Roberts ruled for a unanimous three-judge panel that Ansche's Fourth Amendment and equal-protection rights had not been violated...

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Informant: Thomas L. Knapp