Thursday, March 09, 2006

The Rule of Law is a Cathedral

On Fox News with Brit Hume, there was a piece about Chief Justice John Roberts' first public speech since becoming Chief Justice. He gave it at the Reagan Library after being solicited by Nancy Reagan. I scratched down some notes, which are pretty accurate although I don't claim perfect repetition. These comments struck me very powerfully. For example, he told the audience that Reagan had talked to him about the role of judges and said that judges must have the "lonely courage of the patriot". Roberts went on to say that the rule of law is a cathedral which must be painstakingly built, brick by brick. (How poetically and beautifully put.) He continued, the framers of our constitution created a document to govern our society for ages to come not just for their own age only. Roberts offered the opinion that the establishment of an independent judiciary which can apply the law to the government, as well as to the governed, can be challenging to societies which have not known such a force in generations, if at all. I'm impressed. I'd like to read the entire transcript of that speech.

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