Roberts confirmation hearings to begin Monday

updated 2:35 p.m. ET Sept. 6, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Senate will begin confirmation hearings next Monday for John Roberts to be Supreme Court chief justice, one week after President Bush selected him to replace the late William H. Rehnquist as the 17th leader of the nation’s highest court.

Bush urged senators to confirm Roberts before the court session resumes Oct. 3 and said he was considering many candidates for filling a second vacancy. "The list is wide open," Bush said in the Cabinet Room where he met with advisers about Hurricane Katrina.

Senate leaders made the announcement Tuesday as Rehnquist’s body lay in repose across the street at the Supreme Court. Roberts, a former Rehnquist clerk, helped carry the flag-draped casket into the building for public viewing.

Roberts was supposed to begin his confirmation as the replacement for the retiring Sandra Day O’Connor on Tuesday, but the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was canceled after Rehnquist’s death and Bush’s decision to elevate the 50-year-old Roberts to the top spot.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said senators on the panel would begin their opening statements at noon on Monday. Roberts would be likely to make his opening statement late that afternoon after being introduced by Indiana Sens. Richard Lugar and Evan Bayh, and Virginia Sen. John Warner.

Roberts is likely to begin facing questions from senators starting on Tuesday.

“It is our expectation that we will be able to complete the hearings that week,” Specter said.

Republicans want vote by Oct. 3
With the hearings pushed back a week, Democrats now are refusing to guarantee when the full Senate will give Roberts a final vote. As for the opening of the hearings, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said, “We all agree that Monday should be the day.”

Even with the delay, Republicans say they will conclude Roberts’ confirmation before Oct. 3, the start of the new Supreme Court session.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he expects the committee to finish its vote on Sept. 22, and he plans to bring the nomination to the Senate floor on Monday, Sept. 26 and finish before that Friday.

“Roberts has the skill, the mind, the intellect and the temperament to lead the Supreme Court for decades to come,” Frist said. “The Senate will complete floor action on his nomination before the session begins.”

Specter said he may call for an early committee vote on Roberts, possibly on Sept. 20.

Republicans say quick movement is possible because Roberts is the same judge who seemed to be headed for confirmation as an associate justice before Rehnquist died Saturday.

“We must also remember that with two vacancies, it is more important than ever to put partisanship aside and ensure the court is at full strength as soon as possible,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Judiciary Committee that will hold confirmation hearings on the nominee.

Democrats, however, said bumping Roberts up to chief justice instead of having him replace O’Connor means tougher scrutiny of Rehnquist’s former Supreme Court clerk.

“Substantive questions will be asked,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the committee. “I would hope all senators, Republicans and Democrats, would ask very substantive questions because this is, after all, a lifetime position.”

No Democratic senator has yet publicly opposed Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court, with several praising the federal appeals court judge when he was set to be O’Connor’s replacement. Assuming no more than a handful of Republicans would fail to vote for Roberts, the only way Democrats might stop Roberts’ confirmation would be through a politically bruising filibuster fight.

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