# Potential US S.Ct. vacancies **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 24, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potential-us-s-ct-vacancies/469402 "2008-10-24T18:05:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potential-us-s-ct-vacancies/469402/21 "2008-10-27T20:19:19Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > And for the record, at the ACLU Ginsburg worked on sex discrimination, not reproductive rights. Believing that women should not be discriminated against because of their gender hardly makes her a leftist. I’m not saying she’s a “leftist” - I’m saying she’s not a centrist. And for the record, Ginsburg was a co-founder of the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU, and during her tenure there the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project was established as a separate entity to handle these cases. So to say she wasn’t involved with that issue is laughable - indeed, abortion rights advocates laud her as a hero for it, which would be misplaced if she didn’t in fact do this work. [Cite from the ACLU, spelling out much of their organizational history in this area.](http://www.aclu.org/womensrights/gen/24412pub20060307.html#trail) ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Parker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/35a633/32.png) [@Richard\_Parker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Parker)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potential-us-s-ct-vacancies/469402/22 "2008-10-27T20:23:11Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > I’m not saying she’s a “leftist” - I’m saying she’s not a centrist. Okie doke. Nevertheless, the argument you’ve made does not conflict with **Dinsdale** ’s argument. > [@Mr. Moto](#): > > And for the record, Ginsburg was a co-founder of the Women’s Rights Project at the ACLU, and during her tenure there the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project was established as a separate entity to handle these cases. So to say she wasn’t involved with that issue is laughable - indeed, abortion rights advocates laud her as a hero for it, which would be misplaced if she didn’t in fact do this work. You’re wrong. Read your own cite. The project she founded and worked on didn’t work on reproductive rights issues, which is part of the reason why, along with internal politics, a separate project was subsequently formed. She’s lauded as a hero of abortion rights for her decisions on the court, and her underlying work on sex discrimination. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potential-us-s-ct-vacancies/469402/23 "2008-10-27T20:37:48Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Byron White was viewed as a moderate conservative when JFK appointed him. I’m going to need a cite for this. My understanding was that he was indeed seen as a moderate - but as a moderate liberal and not a conservative. [Contemporary press reports seem to verify this:](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896010-2,00.html) > [@](#): > > Kennedy ended the suspense by naming Deputy Attorney General Byron R. White, 44, sometime football hero and Rhodes scholar. To help make up for his lack of judicial experience. White will bring to the court a high and well-honed intelligence. With a New Frontier Democrat replacing a conservative Republican, it was widely felt that the uneasy balance in the court would tilt decisively toward the liberal bloc—but that was an overly simple interpretation. White is a New Frontier pragmatist. As a former Deputy Attorney General, he will probably tend to side with the Frankfurter bloc in internal security cases, just as Whittaker did. And where White does join with the liberal bloc, he can be expected to contribute to it a cool, analytical, pragmatic approach. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potential-us-s-ct-vacancies/469402/24 "2008-10-27T22:04:59Z")
Ginsburg is certainly a strong proponent of women’s rights, **Mr. Moto**. It’s the main thing I was thinking about when I said she was a centrist outside of “a handful of issues.” (Query what it says about our nation that gender equality is considered a “leftist” position, but whatever.) She’s absolutely a centrist (if that) on economic and business issues, which make up a large part of the Court’s docket. Oh, and White wasn’t much of a swing voter in the last 10-15 years of his tenure, rather being solidly in the conservative bloc that existed at the time. –Cliffy [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/potential-us-s-ct-vacancies/469402.md?page=1)