Roberts Testimony Concludes
Senate Judiciary Committee Will Vote On Chief Justice Nominee Next Week
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Play CBS Video Video Roberts Hearing Concludes The Senate Judiciary Committee is to vote Thursday on John Roberts' nomination as chief justice. In three days of hearings, Roberts did not reveal his personal views on hot button issues.
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Video Another Round For Roberts Chief justice nominee John Roberts faces another day of questioning from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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Video Roberts Dodges More Questions John Roberts skirted offering his views on the death penalty and other issues. But Gloria Borger reports that he defended his view of both the confirmation process and the job of a judge.
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U.S. Chief Justice nominee John G. Roberts, center, shakes hands with adviser, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson on Capitol Hill at the conclusion of his confirmation hearings. (AP)
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Senate Judiciary Committee member Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., gestures during Wednesday's confirmation hearing Capitol Hill. (AP)
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Interactive John G. Roberts Jr. Confirming a Supreme Court nominee: the timetable, the questioners, the background
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Interactive The Supreme Court History, traditions and key cases, plus what it takes to get on the bench.
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Interactive Remembering Rehnquist A look back at the life of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who participated in the civil rights struggles that helped secure passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, remained unconvinced of Roberts' record.
"I don't buy this argument he was just doing his job, just following the rule," said Lewis, one of more than a dozen witnesses who testified after Roberts.
Schumer questioned whether Roberts would be "a truly modest, temperate, careful judge," one "who will impede congressional prerogatives but does not use the bench to remake society," or, as some Democrats fear, one who "will use your enormous talents to use the court to turn back a near century of progress."
Democrats have complained that Roberts avoided many of their questions by saying he couldn't comment on issues that could come before the Supreme Court.
Early on in his third — and abbreviated — day of testimony, Roberts said Congress has the authority to pass laws barring discrimination based on race, gender and disability, and he defended his record on minority issues.
He said he had argued cases in favor of and against affirmative action and noted that he had participated in a program to assist minority students considering law school.
"Yes, I was in an administration that was opposed to quotas," Roberts told Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. "Opposition to quotas is not the same thing as opposition to affirmative action."
Several Democrats have criticized Roberts for assailing the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in Plyler v. Doe, which struck down a Texas law and said the state had to provide free public education to illegal immigrant children.
Roberts, then with the Reagan administration, criticized the ruling and argued the administration should have gotten involved in the case.
Feinstein asked if Roberts, as a person, believed illegal immigrant children should be educated. Roberts offered legal responses, before saying, "My own view, every child should be educated."
As chief justice, Roberts would assign the writing of opinions in which he was with the majority. He could keep the best cases for himself, or dole them out to other justices.
Rehnquist's predecessor, Warren Burger has been accused of being manipulative in the assigning of opinions, even joining the majority, though he disagreed, so he could assign the opinion to himself and try to limit the outcome.
Roberts rejected the idea of assigning himself cases as a strategic move.
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