Smooth Sailing So Far For Roberts
Chief Justice nominee John Roberts said Wednesday that Congress has the right to counter Supreme Court rulings including a divisive decision giving cities broad power to seize and raze people's homes for private development.
President Bush's choice parried lawmakers' questions on a wide variety of subjects — voting rights, the death penalty, the use of foreign law by jurists — amid clear signs that he was on a smooth path toward Senate confirmation as the nation's 17th chief justice.
Republicans challenged Democrats who might oppose Roberts' nomination, portraying the appellate judge and former political appointee in the Reagan and first Bush administration as a brilliant legal scholar who is highly capable to lead the court.
"If people can't vote for you, then I doubt that they can vote for any Republican nominee," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Watch a Live Webcast of the Roberts confirmation hearing.
Earlier this year, a sharply divided Supreme Court said cities can take and bulldoze people's homes in favor of shopping malls or other private development to generate tax revenue. The decision drew a scathing dissent from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as favoring rich corporations, and Republican lawmakers and some Democrats have criticized it as infringing on states' rights.
"This body and legislative bodies in the states are protectors of the people's rights," Roberts said on the third day of his confirmation hearings.
Congress has been working on legislation that would ban the use of federal funds for any project that gets a go-ahead relying on the Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., decision.
"It's not simply a question of legislating to address particular needs, but you obviously have to also be cognizant of the people's rights and you can protect them in situations where the court has determined, as it did 5-4 in Kelo, that they are not going to draw that line," Roberts told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"This body and legislative bodies in the states are protectors of the people's rights," Roberts said on the third day of his confirmation hearings.
Also on the question of congressional versus court authority, committee chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., bristled at lawmakers "being treated as schoolchildren" in criticism from some judges, including Justice Antonin Scalia.
Roberts said the Supreme Court was not the taskmaster of Congress. "The Constitution is the court's taskmaster and it's Congress' taskmaster as well," he said.
Roberts was pressed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., about the Voting Rights Act and a provision that allows the government to veto proposed changes in state or local election systems if they are deemed to have a discriminatory purpose or effect on minority voters.
"I have no basis for viewing this as constitutionally suspect," Roberts told a persistent Kennedy.
Roberts also said if four justices voted for a stay of execution and a fifth vote were necessary to keep the appeal alive temporarily, he would cast the fifth vote. "I think that practice makes a lot of sense."
And he reiterated his opposition to the use of foreign law in rendering U.S. court decisions, but he rejected the notion that judges who do so are violating their oaths as some conservatives have argued.
"I wouldn't accuse judges or justices who disagree with that, though, of violating their oaths. I'd accuse them of getting it wrong on that point," Roberts said.
The high court in the two decades that William Rehnquist served as chief justice had many sharp divisions, reflected in 5-4 rulings on major cases including Bush v. Gore that decided the presidency in 2000.
Roberts contended that the chief justice has a responsibility to pursue agreement.
"I do think the chief justice has a particular obligation to try to achieve consensus consistent with everyone's individual oath to uphold the Constitution, and that would certainly be a priority for me if I were confirmed," said Roberts, whose promotion would be a lifetime appointment.
Separately, Roberts declined to answer a question on the legal status of the unborn, using the oft-repeated answer he had given the committee on Tuesday — it could be a case that he would have to vote on.
If confirmed, Roberts, 50, would be the youngest chief justice in 200 years and the conservative lawyer has the potential to shape the high court for at least a generation. He would succeed Rehnquist, who died Sept. 3 of cancer at the age of 80.
Roberts is expected to earn the Senate's approval before the Supreme Court begins its term Oct. 3.
Said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa: "It's going to be very hard for people to cast a 'no' vote against you."
President Bush had originally nominated Roberts, a federal appeals court judge and conservative lawyer in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, to succeed O'Connor, who announced in July that she would retire. Upon Rehnquist's death, Mr. Bush chose Roberts for chief justice.
The Senate would decide on the nomination of Mr. Bush's still unknown pick to replace O'Connor.
On Tuesday, Roberts dodged senators' attempts to pin down his opinions on abortion, voting rights and other legal issues.
Roberts said he felt the
legalizing abortion was "settled as a precedent" and that the Constitution provides a right to privacy.But when senators pressed for details on his opinions — even to the point of interrupting his answers — Roberts said repeatedly that he shouldn't address some issues that could come before the Supreme Court with him as chief justice.
CBS News legal analyst Jan Crawford Greenberg of the Chicago Tribune said that Roberts' statement does not mean he supports abortion rights.
"There was a comma after that sentence. He said it was settled law, subject to the legal principle that allows courts to rethink their decisions if there are compelling reasons to do so," Greenburg said. "He did not say he would not overturn Roe, despite question after question from senator after senator, trying to pin him down on those views."