Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani – making his first major campaign sweep through Iowa – vowed yesterday to appoint “strict constructionists” to the Supreme Court in a bid to woo social conservatives. Giuliani said he would select judges like current justices John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas – the conservative bloc on the nation’s highest court.
“Judges interpret the Constitution. They shouldn’t be allowed to make it up,” said Giuliani at a Council Bluffs middle school.
“Abortion is not a litmus test. Roe v. Wade is not a litmus test,” he said to reporters in response to how this squares with his pro-choice views.
Giuliani has some fences to mend in Iowa. He angered Hawkeye Republican party leaders by refusing to participate in next month’s Iowa straw poll.
But Giuliani said he will compete fiercely to win the caucus, and he was treated like a star during a visit to a packed coffee house in rural Sloan, pop. 1,000.
With Post wires