In Case You Thought I Forgot

(I haven't said anything about Plame-gate either because there isn't much to say. Arianna Huffington has been absolutely relentless on Judith Miller, which is richly deserved - they should give out Pulitzers for blogging, since Arianna would definitely qualify. I still think there's stuff going on behind the scenes to try and get Fitzgerald to lay off Rove and Libby also, but we'll see.)

Before he went down last week, Harry Reid scoffed at the notion that it was a foregone conclusion that John Roberts would be confirmed to the Supreme Court, with Reid cautioning that the hearings and screening process, if you will, still had a long way to go. What follows is both part of that process and a description of how we can help move that process along.

I wrote to you last week about being a part of a Freedom of Information Act request to be filed today. As it stands now, 60,945 people will be formally requesting the release of the most important documents about the record of John Roberts, President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court.

We are preparing the request right now to be filed by close of business today. If you would like to be a part of the formal request, please add your name now:

The request, which you can read by clicking on that link, will be submitted to the Department of Justice because it pertains to Roberts's time as a high-level appointee in the office of the Solicitor General.

In that office, Roberts worked on dozens of cases that were argued before the Supreme Court. Yet administration officials refuse to release records on 16 key cases that offer the best possible view of how Roberts would handle the most crucial issues facing the nation's highest court.

They have tried to muddy the waters by dumping on the press and the public tens of thousands of pages of far less useful material -- while ignoring a specific request from Senators for all information on these 16 key cases.

The scope of the request was limited to these 16 cases in order to make the review of this nomination as smooth as possible, but the administration has responded by stonewalling and preventing the Senate from getting the full Roberts record.

These 16 cases each have an impact on our basic freedoms: civil rights, equal opportunity for all, women's rights, our right to privacy, and access to justice. Senators -- and ordinary Americans -- need to know whether Roberts will be a guardian of these fundamental freedoms or an ideological activist.

A lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court deserves full consideration of the nominee's record. Please consider formally joining this request:

The administration is obliged to respond within twenty days to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, and I will continue to update those who join the request on its progress.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Joseph E. Sandler
General Counsel
Democratic National Committee