Sparks Fly in “Supreme Semester” Inaugural Event

The “Supreme Semester” got off to a rousing start with a debate between a liberal and a conservative on the important question: “Should the Supreme Court Be Conservative.” The event was cosponsored by a range of student groups: the American Constitutional Society (kudos to Kim Ahern for conceiving and implementing the program), the Association of Public Interest Law, the Federalist Society, the Multicultural Law Students Association, and the Women’s Law Society.

Arguing the affirmative was Ron Cass, Dean Emeritus of Boson University Law School; the case for a liberal Court was presented by Nan Aron, the founder and President of the Alliance for Justice in Washington, D.C.  Dean Cass was a prominent supporter of the President Bush’s nominations of Judges John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Court, while Ms. Aron has led the liberal opposition to a number of Republican nominees since the national conflagration that surrounded the nomination of Robert Bork in 1987.

In capsule, Dean Cass argued that a nominee’s political outlook and views on specific controversial constitutional issues that come before the Court—like abortion rights and the meaning of equal protection—should not be fair game during the confirmation process, while President Aron argued that such considerations are appropriate and that, in any event, Judges Roberts and Alito gave disingenuous answers to such questions while under oath in the Senate hearings.

Click here for coverage of the debate in the Providence Journal.