US senate starts hearings into chief justice nominee
Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said his panel faces its “biggest challenge of the year and perhaps the decade.”
The committee of 10 Republicans and eight Democrats will decide whether to recommend that the Senate confirm President George W Bush’s nomination of Mr Roberts to succeed the late William Rehnquist and become the nation’s 17th chief justice.
In opening statements, senators lauded the credentials of Mr Roberts.
A federal appeals court judge for the past two years, Mr Roberts served in the Republican administrations of President Ronald Reagan andGeorge Bush snr.
Democrats, citing documents stemming from Mr Roberts’ work in government, challenged his commitment to civil rights and women’s rights.
“Judge, if I looked only at what you’ve said and written in the past, I’d feel compelled to vote no,” said Democrat Joseph Biden.
“You dismissed the Constitution’s protection of privacy as a ‘so-called right,’ you derided agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission that combat corporate misconduct as ‘constitutional anomalies,’ and you dismissed ‘gender discrimination’ as merely a, and I quote, ‘perceived problem’.
“This is your chance to explain what you meant,” Mr Biden said.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, replied, telling Mr Roberts: “The memos you wrote while you were working for President Reagan and Bush I, in my opinion, reflect a conservative lawyer advising a conservative president about conservative policies.
“Conservatives have a different view of a lot of issues versus our friends on the other side.”
No Democratic senator has announced opposition to Mr Roberts, and many lawmakers said they would withhold judgement.
Orrin Hatch of Utah seemed to voice the sentiment of many fellow Republicans when he told Mr Roberts: “We have a great deal of respect for you. We expect you to make a great justice.”
