CNN.com – Specter concerned with Supreme Court’s ‘judicial activism’ – Aug 24, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter plans to use the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts to criticize what he calls the high court’s judicial activism, saying Tuesday that justices have started acting as a “super legislature.”

“I am concerned about the Supreme Court’s judicial activism which has usurped congressional authority,” Specter, R-Pennsylvania, said in a letter to Roberts, who will face senators’ questions at his confirmation hearing that begins September 6.

Specter warned Roberts at the beginning of the month that he would be questioned about the Supreme Court’s attitudes toward Congress. In Tuesday’s letter, Specter said he wants the nominee to talk to him about “manufactured rationales used by the Supreme Court to exercise the role of super legislature and make public policy decisions which is the core congressional role under the Constitution.

Whoa! Who are you and what have you done with the real Arlen Specter? And is this a permanent replacement?