PLEASE SIGN NOW.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is exercising its rights under the law - and its interest in complete, comprehensive review before confirmation - to request documents and briefs written by Judge John Roberts in his service prior to sitting on the Federal bench. I urge you to sign the petition and join in the DNC's the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request today.

As you know, Judge Roberts will be considered for the advice and consent of the US Senate next month. Monday is the deadline for FOIA requests, which are necessary to gain access to documents that the Bush Administration refuses to release.

I have heard many of the arguments regarding the inapplicability of these documents, which date from Roberts' work in the Department of Justice, all noting that these briefs were filed in a position of advocacy rather than of personal or judicial opinion. That's bullshit. It doesn't matter in what capacity he wrote them: in a confirmation hearing, the only materials Senators can safely presume the right to question a nominee are those made in a public capacity. Thus, it will be entirely appropriate for Senators to question how Roberts felt about the briefs at the time, and how he feels now as a member of the Federal judiciary - all of which is HIGHLY germane to the process of discerning whether he should have a lifetime appointment on the nation's most powerful body.

The Freedom of Information Act is one of the few offensive tools left against the encroachment of a government hellbent on secrecy in all its actions and utter non-privacy in all of its citizens lives. FOIA requests balance the playing field, and this request is not only within the scope and intent of the law but wholly appropriate to the necessary fact-finding and evaluation of a lifetime nominee to that Court that gathers every year under the ideal, "Equal Justice Under Law."

Please sign the FOIA petitiontoday.