ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 20, 2005
BY DEB RIECHMANN
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Activists on the right and left are priming for a battle supreme.
If President George W. Bush nominates the first new Supreme Court justice in more than a decade, a fight is expected to break out within hours of an announcement.
Overnight, the Internet will buzz with e-mails, pro and con. Radio and TV talk show hosts will jawbone about the testy Senate confirmation battle that's anticipated. TV ads will air for and against Bush's pick. Grassroots groups will cheer or boo the nominee -- with shouting perhaps the loudest in states with senators up for re-election next year.
A vacancy could occur later this month when the court's term closes. Chief Justice William Rehnquist is ailing from thyroid cancer. At 85, John Paul Stevens is the oldest justice; two others are in their 70s.
"The American people ought to prepare themselves to participate in one of the most extensive debates and conversations that's been had in more than a decade about the Supreme Court," said Nan Aron, director of the liberal Alliance for Justice, one of two organizations steering a coalition of groups on the left.
In the conservative corner is the Committee for Justice. Director Sean Rushton says his group is the "air traffic controller" of the right-of-center campaign to seat a conservative judge in the mode of Justices Clarence Thomas or Antonin Scalia. He said many groups on the right say that if Rehnquist is going to step down, they hope Congress could finish the confirmation process before the August recess.
"I think there's a sense that in the past, the left has really made excellent use of the month of August when senators are all back home," Rushton said, recalling President Ronald Reagan's 1987 nomination of Robert Bork, who after being portrayed as a brilliant jurist and a dangerous extremist, was rejected by the Senate.
The Committee for Justice, which has close ties to the White House, was formed three years ago at the request of Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, then the majority leader, and the urging of Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove.
The group holds weekly conference calls with conservative groups, raises money and keeps in touch with powerful players in Washington. It is steered by C. Boyden Gray, the White House counsel to former President George Bush who helped Thomas through a contentious confirmation amid allegations of sexual harassment.
Rushton insists the left has much more money to block a conservative nomination to the court than the right has to promote one. "There's not a lot of money on this issue on the right," he said.
Ralph Neas, who directs the liberal People for the American Way, disputes that contention.
"Having been on the opposite side of Boyden Gray and his special-interest clients, I know how much they can raise," Neas said. "Their pockets are as deep as any pockets in the advocacy world."