The Committee for Justice began running the ad in the three major media markets in South Carolina, a state whose Feb. 3 primary is crucial for the N.C. senator.

As many as half the Democratic primary voters are expected to be African American, and the ad is clearly designed to raise questions about Edwards among black voters. It shows photos of Janice Rogers Brown as a narrator describes her rise as the daughter of a sharecropper to a seat on the California Supreme Court and now a nominee to the country's second highest court.

"And now John Edwards says `No way,' " the narrator says. "Shame on you, Senator Edwards. Support the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown."

Committee for Justice executive director Sean Rushton says the group chose South Carolina because of its importance in the presidential contest.

Edwards called the committee "a White House front group." He noted that the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP and other civil rights groups oppose Brown's nomination.

He said Brown "has a record of repeatedly putting her own views above the law -- views that are hostile to fundamental civil and constitutional rights and to affirmative action in particular."