McCain Says He Would Put Conservatives on Supreme Court

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 7, 2008; A09

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., May 6 -- Highlighting an issue he plans to use
aggressively in the general election campaign, Sen. John McCain on Tuesday
decried "the common and systematic abuse of our federal courts by the people
we entrust with judicial power" and pledged to nominate judges similar to
the ones President Bush has placed on the bench.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee said that Chief Justice John
G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. "would serve as the model for
my own nominees, if that responsibility falls to me," highlighting the gap
between Republicans and Democrats on the question of who should sit on the
Supreme Court. Both justices have established strong conservative records
since Bush appointed them, and the appointment of one more conservative to
the nation's highest court could tip the balance on issues such as abortion,
discrimination, civil liberties and private property.

The two remaining Democratic candidates, Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and
Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), opposed the nominations of Roberts and Alito.