Wow! I wish I'd have known about this beforehand. What a year for BYU - the Vice President, Senate Majority Leader and Supreme Court Chief Justice have all spoken in Provo. That is simply amazing.

Judges should not legislate from the bench. Unless, of course, the judge is a conservative Christian extremist. Then it's cool.

Hey, LaVerl: What cases do you have in mind? Or was that just a cheap shot?

I was there at the forum address, it was interesting to see secret service guard the podium. The article above left out his joke. He talked about the US constitution being a constitution that has stood the test of time compared to other nations. He mentioned how france has been through 10 constitutions. " A man asked a french book store owner where he could find a copy of the French constitution, The owner replied sorry we dont carry periodicals."

While I disagreed with BYU's decision to invite V.P. Cheney as a commencement speaker, I must concur with Thomas that it has been quite a year for BYU. Keep it up! My diploma from there will hopefully look better and better to potential employees. (Note to the administration: please keep bringing people like Harry Reid in to keep things balanced. I don't want "BYU" to become confused with Bob Jones University or Regents Univeristy in the public mind)

Only 7800 in the "Big Mac" to hear the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Shame on BYU students, Faculty and the Town of Provo! I hope the attendance figure that I read was wrong.

Another hit for this reporter. I too attended the forum and could hardly wait for the article to come out this afternoon. So pleased to see it is "fair and balanced" per usual and covered an important speaker in an informative and respectful way. Way to go Des News - and way to go Tad Walch. Always enjoy your articles.

How about Bush v. Gore as an example of judicial activism from the right?

Bush v Gore: Let's take a look.

1) There were four counts (the last one was incomplete) and all four showed Bush the winner in Florida (the last based on projections even by the Democrats).

2) Florida state law allowed for one recount and one only plus it defined the date for announcing the winner. Through judicial fiat in the State Supreme Court, Democrats coerced Florida to violate their own state laws with additional counts and additional time.

3) The US Supreme Court correctly enforced Florida state law as well as enforced national laws as they existed at the time.

In short, there were a set of national and state rules by which the election was to be conducted. The Democrats lost and decided they didn't like the rules after all. They are the ones that forced illegal activity with the third and fourth counts and with the schedule extension.

There was no judicial activism. The Supreme Court decided that Florida should adhere to the laws that were in place. It would have been activism if they had made any other decision.

If I remember the figures right, about 4300 came to hear comrade Reid, but over 7000 came to hear Mr. Roberts. My opinion of BYU just improved. LaVerl is the typical liberal, makes a wild accusation without backing it up with any examples.

Another point on Florida, the Florida Supreme Court wanted to do a selective recount of predominantly Democratic districts. The Supreme Court squashed that by 7-2, THEN narrowly determined 5-4 that the time was past to do a statewide recount. Subsequent counts, which took weeks/months, showed that Pres. Bush still won, even if only by a few hundred votes.

In short, not a conspiracy.

It's a sad reflection on about 20,000 of the students and faculty that only 7,000 showed up to hear the Chief Justice of the U.S.

Were they all hanging out at the Cougareat?

Maybe the other 13000 students were out having fun today. I wish I had been... instead of listening to a rather boring uninspiring speech. Heck. The prayers given were better speeches than what Roberts gave us.

Anyone can watch the forum at http://byu.tv on demand for free.

judges should not legislate period like earl warren did among others the constitution is what it is three equal branches

The attendance figure also didn't count the places on campus where the devotional is show, the auditoriums were packed, it can be difficult to get clear up to the Marriott center in-between classes, the JSB was packed.