Slow news day?

You would think there's plenty to occupy the news with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, Michael Brown of FEMA resigning, an outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland, the Gaza pullout, there's plenty of news stories to fill the half-hour local news. Yet a local news station was at school today to get students' reactions to the first day of confirmation hearings for John G. Roberts, Jr. So now there's a roll of film of me stammering about what concerns I have for a Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr. I couldn't come up with a good on-the-spot answer, even though I have been closely following the nomination process. I hope I don't freeze like that if I'm ever a practicing lawyer.

The first day of hearings was not interesting. Everyone got to make an opening statement about what they hoped the hearing would be, and thereby score points with their political base. I know that the hearing process would probably not be illuminative as to what kind of Justice John Roberts would be, but I still intend to watch. John Roberts is an intelligent man and he's already been through the process once when he got appointed to the DC Court of Appeals. He knows what kinds of answers he needs to give. However, it should still give a glimpse into what a Roberts court will be. If nothing else, being a lawyer is about a psychic, as much about predicting where the law will go, as what the law is. Therefore, figuring out what a Roberts court would do is important to my future profession. And I don't want to look uninformed on television again.