You wonder what depths people will sink to in order to defeat a nominee they fear will adhere to the written words of the Constitution? Here's one example.

The pro-abortion group NARAL has produced a despicable ad that blatantly lies about Judge John Roberts to try to defeat his confirmation to the Supreme Court. This is just more evidence that there are many on the left who care more about winning than about any other value, including any respect for the truth.

The Washington Post reports:

"Supreme Court nominee John Roberts filed court briefs supporting violent fringe groups and a convicted clinic bomber," the ad states.

But this is an outright lie on several fronts.

According to the Post,

"The solicitor general's office filed a friend-of-the-court brief siding with the clinic protesters, including Operation Rescue. The high court ruled 6 to 3 against the health clinics in January 1993. The NARAL ad, set to begin airing tomorrow on local channels in Maine and Rhode Island and nationally on the CNN and Fox News cable networks, features Emily Lyons, a clinic director who was badly injured when a bomb exploded at her clinic in Birmingham in 1998.

Catch that? The Supreme Court ruled (in favor of Roberts' argument) in January of 1993. That means Roberts argued the case some time in 1992 or earlier. The bombing NARAL alludes to occurred in 1998. In 1992, the clinic bomber was not "convicted" for a bombing that occurred in 1998. What NARAL said is a complete lie. The word "lie" gets thrown around with abandon these days for any mistaken statement or disagreement ("Bush lied about Iraq and WMD", for example). But this ad is a deliberate, calculated falsehood - a lie.

And of course, Roberts wasn't involved to defend any of the activities of the anti-abortion groups involved in the 1993 case. He argued that a particular statute was not applicable to a particular case.

In his oral argument before the court, Roberts said, according to a transcript of the proceedings, "The United States appears in this case not to defend petitioners' tortious conduct, but to defend the proper interpretation" of the statute.

The Court agreed. So, according to the nuanced thinkers at NARAL, six members of the U.S. Supreme Court must also condone clinic bombings.

And the folks at NARAL just can't stop lying once they start.

Compare:

The ad concludes by saying, "America can't afford a justice whose ideology leads him to excuse violence against other Americans."

and

NARAL President Nancy Keenan defended the ad but said, "We're not suggesting that Mr. Roberts condones clinic violence."

NARAL and their defenders should be truly ashamed, but it's obvious they have no shame.

More from Patterico, Powerline, Blogs for Bush, Captain's Quarters, and Volokh. Added to the OTB Traffic Jam. More from Michelle Malkin.