The Heat and Ferment to Come

As Senators, commentators and bloggers gear up for U.S. Chief Justice-nominee John Roberts' Senate confirmation hearing scheduled for next Monday, I thought I'd emphasize just how important this hearing is, how much impact it could have on the future of our country.

In the light of the following consideration by the ever-prescient Alexis De Tocqueville on the peculiar importance of the Supreme Court in America, it hardly seems that there should be limits to the scope and degree of the questions put to Mr. Roberts, his good education and character notwithstanding:

"The President may slip without the state suffering, for his duties are limited. Congress may slip without the Union perishing, for above Congress there is the electoral body which can change its spirit by changing its members. But if ever the Supreme Court came to be composed of rash or corrupt men, the confederation would be threatened by anarchy or civil war." (Democracy in America, Vol. 1, Part 1, Ch. 8, p. 151)