Roberts' "Liberal Streak"

The Washington Post has this article on Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee John Roberts' voting record. A study of his decisions from his two years in the D.C. Court of Appeals finds that he is typically more conservative than the average federal appellate judge, except on economic regulation and labor issues. I gleen from the article that he is willing to defer to the decisions of federal agencies, particularly the NLRB.

With the rightward shift of the Board, I fear that this means more Supreme Court support for conservative, narrow readings of the Act. On the other hand, if Board cases don't get up to the Supreme Court while there's still a Bush Board, but they do go up once the Board shifts again, we could have some strong favorable law. In other words, unions and their lawyers need to be convinced that they should not appeal any crappy Board decisions up to the SCOTUS, and hope that, once the revolution comes (or the "breath of fresh air" that will seem like a revolution by the time we get rid of this administration), employers do appeal pro-worker decisions.