Republican nominee Mitt Romney on Thursday addressed his past praise for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in light of Robert’s deciding vote in favor of upholding the healthcare legislation.
“He’s a very bright person and I look for people who follow the Constitution,” Romney said on CBS News‘s “This Morning.”
Romney on his website had named Roberts as the type of justice he would nominate as president.
“I wouldn’t nominate someone who I knew would come out with a decision that I violently disagreed with, or vehemently disagreed with,” Romney said of the healthcare ruling, calling Roberts’s decision “not an appropriate conclusion.”
According to leaks, since the Supreme Court upheld the healthcare reform act as constitutional, Roberts initially sided with the conservative dissent in the decision but ultimately changed his mind and became the deciding factor in the Court’s ruling, noted The Hill.
“It gives the impression the decision wasn’t made on the constitution but on political consideration between the branches of government,” Romney said. “But we won’t really know the answers to those things until maybe the Justice speaks out sometime in history.”
Roberts’s decision shocked the GOP, who had expected him to be an ally in their goal to eliminate “Obamacare” legislation.
Roberts acknowledged the fall-out last week when he told a judicial conference he is headed to Malta for two weeks now that the Supreme Court is adjourned.
“Malta, as you know, is an impregnable island fortress. It seemed like a good idea,” Roberts joked, according to the Associated Press.
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