Tag: John Adams

While the nation was following the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, I was thinking of what I learned about politics and the Supreme Court in writing my latest. Consider John Rutledge, arguably the second chief justice. Rutledge had spoken against Jay’s Treaty, a controversial agreement with Britain that the Federalist party supported. He campaigned for John Adams for president and gave charges to grand juries that were (Federalist) political speeches. After the first Republican party (now the Democrats) swept Congress and the White House in the elections of 1800, Chase hung by a thread. The House impeached him at the end of Thomas Jefferson’s first term, and he was tried by the Senate in February 1805. Lame-duck veep Aaron Burr presided, despite having been indicted for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel. In 1828 he ran for governor against Van Buren, who creamed him, so he stayed on as associate justice. John Marshall died that summer. When a new Senate, with a Democratic majority, met in December, Taney was confirmed as chief justice.

John Adams: A Government of Laws, and Not Men, in Virginia. In a state of so many founders that advanced the cause of individual liberty, religious freedom and the rule of law, Republican John Adams is running for attorney general on a record and platform that fully embraces this cause. Not only does Virginia’s John Adams share the Massachusetts founder’s name and principles, but he’s actually related to Presidents John and John Quincy Adams. He’s a Virginian of great accomplishment, Born and raised in Chesterfield County, he attended local public schools before graduating with distinction (economics) from the Virginia Military Institute. Adams is committed to the rule of laws – and the Virginia and U.S. Constitutions – to reining in out-of-control government at the state and federal law, and returning the voters and their legislative representatives to their proper place in Virginia’s political order. And Herring? Adams is proudly pro-life and promises to uphold strict standards for abortion clinics and defend the laws that the General Assembly passes in court. Herring did just this when it came to defending Virginia’s voter ID law and its Constitution’s traditional marriage amendment. Adams vows to defend Virginia’s law and Constitution provisions instead of engaging in these costly political subterfuges, because that’s the job of the attorney general. Herring has voted for greater gun control in the past and advocated more of the same as Virginia attorney general.