Smooth Sailing For Roberts

Senators Shift Focus To Battle Over Next Supreme Court Nominee

(CBS/AP)  Roberts' would-be colleagues support him, too, said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa. "The word is that the justices very much applaud his nomination to be chief justice," Specter said.

Roberts has all of the qualities a good chief justice needs, and senators who vote against him are only doing so for partisan reasons, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "If he doesn't get 90-plus votes, I think the Senate needs to do some self-evaluating, because we're going down the wrong road," Graham said.

Widely mentioned candidates for O'Connor's seat include federal appellate judges Janice Rogers Brown, Edith Brown Clement, Edith Hollan Jones, Emilio Garza, Alice Batchelder, Karen Williams, J. Michael Luttig, J. Harvie Wilkinson, Michael McConnell and Samuel Alito. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former deputy attorney general Larry Thompson, lawyer Miguel Estrada and Maura Corrigan, a member of the Michigan Supreme Court, are also considered possibilities.

Roberts' Democratic supporters warned the White House not to take their support for granted on the next nominee, especially if Mr. Bush chooses a hard-right conservative.

"We're asking him in this case especially: Be a uniter. Don't be a divider, for the sake of the country," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.

Democrats opposing Roberts say they're afraid the former lawyer in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations will be staunchly conservative like Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.

They questioned Roberts' commitment to civil rights and expressed concern that he might overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade court ruling that established a right to abortion. "I have too many doubts about his commitment to nondiscrimination, the right of privacy and equal protection under the law," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

Republicans insisted Roberts has not indicated how he will vote on any issue, including abortion. "Judge Roberts is not predisposed to overturning the settled precedent represented by Roe," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.