A Question for John Roberts
Back in the early '80s, John Roberts, as an assistant to attorney general William French Smith, was an advocate of a restrained federal government. In one August 1982 memo, he endorsed a limited view of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal aid. According to the Times, Roberts wrote, "Under Title IX, federal investigators cannot rummage willy-nilly through institutions but can only go as far as the federal funds go."
Well, times have changed, and now the Republican Party has become the party of big government, in everything from spending to domestic security to education. One specific area is the Solomon Amendment, which would allow the government to sever federal aid to educational institutions that ban military recruiting—not just the part of the institution that bans the recruiting (say, a law school), and not just the aid related to the military. The Clinton administration didn't enforce this law; the Bush administration is enforcing it.
Given Roberts' past position on Title IX, I'd like to hear a Judiciary Committee senator ask him whether he now thinks that the Solomon Amendment allows the government "to rummage willy-nilly through institutions," or whether the government's reach "can only go as far as the federal funds go." It seems only fair.
