The conservative beef with GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney is that he’s too centrist. On issues like climate change and health care and social conservatism, Romney has issues convincing the right wing he’s one of them.
Could wrapping himself up in some of the most conservative names from the legal sphere help change that image? We’re about to find out.
On Tuesday, Romney announced his “Justice Advisory Committee” which, according to the campaign “will advise on the Constitution, judicial matters, law enforcement, homeland security, and regulatory issues.” The group will even “provide legal counsel to the campaign” when it’s “appropriate and permitted.”
The list includes a roundup of some of the country’s most conservative legal minds, and it’s a possible precursor to what a Romney administration’s Justice Department might look like.
At the top of the list is Committee co-chair Robert Bork, the former Reagan Supreme Court nominee who infamously began his legal career with strident attacks on the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Also on the list is attorney David Rivkin, who’s leading one of the largest lawsuits to overturn the health care law passed by Congress in 2010. Romney has said he wants to overturn the law based on the one he signed in Massachusetts, and is sympathetic with the lawsuits.
Lower down the list of lawyers are a slew of legal bods from George W. Bush’s administration, including Steven Bradbury, one of the signers of the Bush DOJ torture memos.
The whole list:
Alex Acosta
William Allen
Alex Azar
H. Christopher Bartolomucci
Lizette Benedi Herraiz
Bradford A. Berenson
Elliot S. Berke
Brant Bishop
Michelle Boardman
J. Caleb Boggs III
Robert Bork
Steven Bradbury
Lee A. Casey
Michael Chertoff
Jeffrey Clark
Gus Coldebella
Roderick De Arment
George Dent
Michael R. Dimino
Thomas Dupree
Charles Eskridge
Allen Ferrell
Timothy Flanigan
Sergio J. Galvis
Deborah A. Garza
Tom Gede
Mary Ann Glendon
Alan Gura
Jimmy Gurulé
Catherine Hanaway
Jennifer Hardy
W. Thomas Haynes
Jay Jorgensen
Jay Kanzler
Roy Katzovicz
Richard Klingler
Christopher Landau
Stephen Larson
Katie Lev
Wendy Long
Fred Lowell
Raymond B. Ludwiszewski
Maureen Mahoney
Roman Martinez
Gary McDowell
Brent McIntosh
Grant S. Nelson
Mark Nielsen
Howard C. Nielson, Jr.
Robert O’Brien
Kevin O’Connor
John O’Quinn
Elizabeth Papez
Matthew Papez
Nels Peterson
Thomas Phillips
Stephen Presser
David Rivkin, Jr.
Jeffrey Rosen
Gene Schaerr
Jay Stephens
John Sullivan
Richard Wiley
