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The "Gang of 14" senators who brokered the end to judicial filibusters has so far stuck together in unanimously supporting the nomination of federal Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be the next Supreme Court chief justice. That stamp of approval, Republican leaders say, paves the way for a smoother confirmation of the next Supreme Court nominee. "The process has been handled very well," Majority Whip Mitch McConnell told reporters yesterday. "The outcome will be largely bipartisan. I think that's very good for the Senate, because in many ways the Senate itself was on trial here." Specifically, Republican leaders say,...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter announced his support yesterday for the nomination of federal Judge John G. Roberts Jr. as Supreme Court chief justice. "After listening to Judge John Roberts testify for nearly 17 hours and then hearing from 31 witnesses -- some for and some against his nomination -- I have decided to vote to confirm him to be chief justice of the United States," Mr. Specter said in a speech yesterday on the Senate floor. Although Mr. Specter is the panel's top Republican, his support for the conservative jurist was not a foregone conclusion. The Pennsylvanian often...

WASHINGTON - Jack and Josie came in right on cue, trailing their father, the man in line to be the next chief justice of the United States. Senators stooped first to greet the youngsters, 5-year-old Josie, in her baby blue party dress and white headband, and 4-year-old Jack, in his blue blazer, bow tie and short gray flannel pants. Only then did the senators rise to welcome Dad, also known as John Roberts

RUSH: I mentioned in the last hour that the left is just unloading today on Judge John Roberts. Virtually every fringe lib group that you've heard of (and some that you haven't heard of) are issuing press releases and faxes and the American media is dutifully bending over forwards and backwards to give them the credibility that none of them have earned and deserve. Making them all sound bigger and more powerful and relevant than they are. Before we get to details of that, there's this today from the Los Angeles Times: "On High Court Vote, Centrist Democrats Caught in...

John G. Roberts Jr. will end up the most-scrutinized Supreme Court selection in history, due in large part to the Internet, which has made it easier to look at his writings and to rally for or against his nomination. Thousands of pages of his writings are available on the National Archives' Web site, and every opinion that Judge Roberts has written during two years on a federal appeals court also is available. Unlike earlier nominations, this time the press is no longer the sole source of information. This time, senators, lawyers and laymen alike can dissect Judge Roberts' record firsthand...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 - Two weeks before senators begin questioning the Supreme Court nominee, John G. Roberts Jr., the debate over his confirmation is becoming a test of Senate Democrats as well. The party's liberal base, whose contributions during judicial confirmation fights earlier this year have helped the Senate Democratic campaign fund amass twice as much as its Republican rival, is pressing for another vigorous fight against Judge Roberts as documents from the Reagan administration clarify his conservative credentials.

I predicted it. I told you those expected to oppose the nomination of John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court would come around after realizing they got their wish – another Anthony Kennedy or David Souter. It's happening. Just check out the column earlier this week by the Washington Post's Richard Cohen. This is the beginning. Soon you will see some of the most partisan Democrats in the U.S. Senate coming around. Mark my words. Cohen's commentary is not directed to Republicans in the Senate, who will support the nomination by President Bush unanimously. It is directed to those who...

I don't know who makes me sicker – President Bush or the "conservatives" who continue to back him and his sell-out choice for the U.S. Supreme Court. The conservatives eagerly jumped in to throw their support to the unknown John Roberts as soon as the choice to replace Sandra Day O'Connor was announced. On what basis? The guy was a blank slate – like David Souter and Anthony Kennedy before him. Then, last week, the Los Angeles Times broke the story that Roberts had volunteered his services – pro bono – to help prepare a landmark homosexual activist case to...

Pro-choice advocates say documents released this week from the National Archives suggest that federal Judge John G. Roberts Jr. would vote to curtail abortion rights if confirmed to the Supreme Court. "We are gravely concerned this new information could indicate John Roberts holds a hostile position on the fundamental right to privacy," Karen Pearl, interim president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said after reading a draft article Judge Roberts wrote in 1981 as a lawyer in the Reagan administration. "The draft article attacks the very bedrock of reproductive freedom." The 1981 draft article about judicial restraint raises deeper...

WASHINGTON — John Roberts pledged Tuesday to respect established rulings if confirmed to the Supreme Court, saying judges must recognize that their role is "not to solve society's problems." With few appeals court rulings by Roberts to go on, lawmakers and special interest groups have been poring over the nominee's writings to try to determine his legal philosophy. Roberts provided some new insight in answers to a lengthy questionnaire from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will begin considering Roberts' nomination on Sept. 6. Still, the 84-page disclosure, which was released late Tuesday during Congress' monthlong recess, contained no smoking gun....

Congressional Democrats yesterday called President Bush's recess appointment of John R. Bolton as U.N. ambassador an "abuse of power," but said any ill will would not affect the prospects of his Supreme Court nominee, Judge John G. Roberts Jr. "Each nomination's unique," said Rebecca Kirszner, a spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat. "The willingness of the White House to allow Congress to perform its duty is certainly a factor for all nominations. "The Roberts nomination will be judged on its own merits," she said. Sen. Edward M. (Lard Ass) Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is expected to...

Scarcely had Judge John G. Roberts been chosen for the Supreme Court than religion reared its lovely head. And just as swiftly, opponents and supporters of the selection traded accusations over who was responsible. Were opponents playing with religious prejudice and trying to erect an unconstitutional religious test for public office? Were supporters smearing the opposition and trying to block legitimate lines of inquiry about Judge Roberts's views by charging that these amounted to anti-Catholic or anti-religious hostility? From the narrow viewpoint of this column, all this attention to religion could be welcomed as simply that much more grist for...

In an editorial today, the “hightly respected” New York Times is asking whether or not Judge John G. Roberts is a member of the-hold on to your seats now-Federalist Society-ooh, aah, are you frightened yet? The implication by the Left is that the Federalist Society is some sort of shadowy, cabalistic, perhaps even malevolent, group of hooded, incantation speaking, lawyer-sorcerers who, having sold their souls to the Devil, are intent on corrupting and taking over the Government of the United States. Now once I move beyond my usual sarcastic attitude about trial lawyers and my tendency to say “Of course...

Of the things that separate Americans politically, the "God gap" may be the most powerful. Republicans enjoy a big advantage among voters who are religious and, if Democrats aren't careful, the Supreme Court confirmation battle over John Roberts could turn the gap into a chasm. Religion is already raising its head as the Senate preps for its September hearings on Roberts. A devout Catholic, he has been asked by at least two senators about the role his faith would play in judicial decisions. The answers have been confusing: According to one senator, Roberts said he would have no trouble following...

AS A BRASH, 20-SOMETHING LAWYER in the Reagan administration, John G. Roberts Jr. was a conservative's conservative, urging fellow Reaganites to more faithfully pursue a conservative agenda. Documents from Mr. Roberts' days in the Justice Department and the White House counsel's office in the early 1980s raise questions about the U.S. Supreme Court nominee's commitment to the role of the federal courts in protecting religious freedom, abortion rights and equality. Mr. Roberts was a 27-year-old special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith at a time when the Reagan administration was working to reverse long-standing civil rights policies. Mr. Roberts...

WASHINGTON, July 27 - The early 1980's were a heady time for conservatives in Washington. Ronald Reagan was president, and after years on the outside, some of the strongest voices in the conservative movement - men like Edwin Meese III, James G. Watt, William Bradford Reynolds and Theodore B. Olson - were in high positions in the government and were determined to reverse what they believed to be years of liberal policies in areas like civil rights, environmental protection, criminal law and immigration. John G. Roberts, a young lawyer in the Justice Department in 1981 and 1982 and on the...

I may be going against the conservative grain here, but I am not as bothered by the prospect of questions from Senate Judiciary Committee members seeking to determine how John Roberts' judicial philosophy might guide him in considering certain specific questions of constitutional law, including abortion. I certainly agree that judicial nominees should not telegraph how they intend to vote on a particular case that is either before or on its way to the Court, but I think both sides have used this more as an excuse to shield their respective nominees. There are limited other ways to determine a...

Even Democrats are beginning to sense that the American people have had about enough of their mindless obstructionist tactics. Most of us know what the Constitution says. The President has the sole right to appoint Supreme Court nominees and the Senate has the obligation to offer advice, then their consent or dissent as the case may be. We understand that the Democrats power is limited to underhanded character assassination leading up to another abuse of the filibuster. Who do you think removed them from all other forms of power in Washington? But despite the recent “damn the torpedoes elitists” mindset...

Washington, DC – Traditional Values Coalition Executive Director Andrea Lafferty complained today that an article in the Washington Post about the clothes worn by Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ children was “unfair and disappointing.” Mrs. Lafferty said in a letter sent to Post Editor Leonard Downie, Jr. that the Post has now set a new pecking order for “unfair journalism which ignores substance and slides right into chortling about form.” “If you can’t come up with something disgusting about the actual nominee or his wife then rough-up the kids some and see what happens,” Mrs. Lafferty said today. Post fashion...

As predicted, President Bush’s Supreme Pick, John Roberts, is generating leftist mass hysteria. John Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court is being widely acclaimed from the right to the left of the political spectrum because there’s no credible basis for doing otherwise. But then there’s the hyberbolic hysteria coming from the abortion-gay-environmental wing, which has been raising gazillions in order to wage a war against _______________ (fill-in-the-blank). Take for example: An “artfully” worded comment from the Feminist Majority: “I am extremely disappointed that the President did not appoint a centrist woman to fill Sandra Day O’Connor’s seat on the Supreme...