Court Nominee Heads To The Hill
President Bush urged the Senate on Wednesday to "provide a fair and civil process" and to confirm his nominee for the Supreme Court before the next court session begins in October.
Mr. Bush spoke the morning after he announced U.S. Appeals Court judge John G. Roberts as his choice to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor as the first new member of the nation's highest court in more than a decade.
After a breakfast meeting with the president, Roberts, 50, headed to Capitol Hill to pay courtesy calls on senators who will ultimately decide his fate.
A top White House aide tells CBS News Correspondent Gloria Borger that Roberts is "a man of principle, yet someone not always spoiling for a fight."
Yet, that's what he may be headed for on Capitol Hill. The one thing both parties agreed on was that the hearings will be extensive.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said hearings on the nomination would begin in late August or more likely early September.
"I can assure you that the hearings will be full, fair and complete," he told reporters.
Roberts' first stop on Capitol Hill was the office of Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn,, who called the nominee "a leading legal mind." Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the second-ranking Republican, predicted a "respectful process" that would culminate in confirmation on the president's timetable.
Roberts also had a meeting scheduled with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who said the nominee "has had an impressive legal career" and other fine qualities. But, he added, "They do not automatically qualify John Roberts to serve on the highest court of the land."
He said senators "must be convinced that the nominee will respect constitutional principles and protect the constitutional rights of all Americans."
As Borger reports, Roberts credentials are not in question, it's his personal views that Democrats want to know more about.
CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen said Roberts "is going to be questioned about his record in environmental and civil rights cases and about the clients he had while he was a million-dollar-a-year attorney in private practice just before he got his current job as a judge. He is going to be hammered about the controversial positions he took as part of the Solicitor General's office, too."
Abortion surfaced quickly as a flash point.
NARAL-Pro Choice America announced its opposition to Roberts even before Mr. Bush formally made his selection public in a prime time televised White House appearance on Tuesday. The group planned an "emergency demonstration" against the nomination across the street from the Capitol at midday.
On the on the other side of the political equation, Progress For America called a news conference to announce a television commercial to begin running soon. The group, which coordinates its efforts with presidential aides, pledged in advance to spend at least $18 million on advertising and grass roots activities to buttress the confirmation prospects of whomever Mr. Bush chose.
Abortion, a polarizing issue for lawmakers, will be the "hot button" issue in the confirmation battle, conceded Fred Thompson, the former senator who will shepherd the nomination through the Senate.
At the same time, he cautioned against reading too much into Roberts' various writings on Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
"Many of the positions he's taken are positions he took as an advocate ... representing a client," said Thompson.
Specter, who supports abortion rights, said he was disappointed that some liberal organizations view Roberts as unsuitable over the issue of abortion.
He did say, though, that he felt it appropriate to ask Roberts about his previous statement that Roe v. Wade was settled law. "If he said it's settled law, it would be relevant to confirm the fact that has been said," Specter said.
Democrats raised questions and said they would await the hearings to seek answers.
"Basically I'll concede the fact that he's an honest man with good legal credentials who has a good temperament by all the accounts that I've read," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., a member of the Judiciary Committee, who voted against Roberts' confirmation to his appeals court position.
"But you have to get down to the basics," Durbin told The Early Show. "Is he in the mainstream on American values on issues like civil rights, workers' rights, protecting the environment? I have an obligation to ask those questions because Americans look to the Supreme Court as the last stop in our government when it comes to our rights and liberties."
Democratic concern over Roberts' abortion views stem from two seemingly contradictory positions that Roberts took on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
In a brief that he filed with the Supreme Court while serving as deputy solicitor general in the administration of the first President Bush, Roberts said that Roe v. Wade "was wrongly decided and should be overruled."
Several years later, he told senators during his 2003 confirmation hearings for his current appellate court post that the decision was "the settled law of the land."
Thompson said the administration expects lawmakers to ask tough questions about Roberts' abortion views. But he also said they should distinguish between Roberts' role as a policy advocate as a one-time deputy solicitor general in a Republican administration and his contrasting role as a jurist.
"It's not a question of whose side he's on," Thompson said. "He's on the side of the litigant that comes into court with the facts and the law on their side. And he will not be prejudging any cases before the committee or anyone else."
Also Wednesday, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said she's disappointed President Bush named a man to replace her. But she's not disappointed in nominee John Roberts.
"I am disappointed, in a sense, to see the percentage of women on our court drop by 50 percent," she told a judicial conference in Spokean, Wash. "But, I can't be disappointed in the quality of person nominated. He's first rate."