Most active court watchers were expecting to see the resignation of Chief Justice William H. Neas, president of People for the American Way, noting that this fight will be even more momentous than the one for which they have been preparing for years, the successor to the chief justice. “This is a watershed moment,” said Ralph G. With grave expressions on their faces, the activists stood somberly behind a lectern and one-by-one delivered impassioned pleas that Justice O’Connor be replaced with a jurist who will protect their particular interests. Liberals gird for Supreme struggle (WaTi)Ī group of the most influential liberal court lobbyists gathered in a high-ceilinged room across the hall from the Senate chamber, within hours of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement announcement Friday.
Bush’s convictions and past promises, and his biggest opportunity yet to assure that the Bush presidency will leave a conservative stamp for a generation to come.
Conservatives, flexing their muscles in a battle they have spent a decade preparing for, described the nomination as a test of Mr. Senate Democrats demanded that he consult them before making a choice and appoint a pragmatist in Justice O’Connor’s mold. Bush this weekend as he headed to Camp David to begin considering a replacement for Justice O’Connor, a decision his aides said would not be announced before he returned from a trip to Europe at the end of next week. Gonzales was just one sign of the conflicting forces suddenly swirling around Mr. Gonzales, whose views on abortion are considered suspect by religious conservatives, would fracture the president’s conservative backers.
#SANDRA DAY O CONNOR REPLACEMENT FREE#
Weyrich, a veteran conservative organizer and chairman of the Free Congress Foundation, said he had told administration officials that nominating Mr. Gonzales would splinter conservative support. Boyden Gray and former Attorney General Edwin Meese III met with the White House chief of staff, Andrew H. Late last week, a delegation of conservative lawyers led by C. Within hours after Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s announced retirement from the Supreme Court, members of conservative groups around the country convened in five national conference calls in which, participants said, they shared one big concern: heading off any effort by President Bush to nominate his attorney general, Alberto R. “I think he already knows what he wants to do.”Ĭonservative Groups Rally Against Gonzales as Justice (NYT RSS) “Already, people have been pushing various candidates, but I don’t think that’s going to have much effect on Bush,” he said. Bork, whose Supreme Court nomination was defeated in 1987, said his friends believe Gonzales will be the nominee and that lobbying will not change that. Yet some conservatives have resigned themselves to Gonzales. “It’s kind of hard to vote for her once and then turn around and say she’s unacceptable.” Bauer, president of the Christian organization American Values. “She’s just been through the process,” said Gary L. And as a black woman, she would be harder to vote against, these strategists reasoned. Having just confirmed Brown, activists reason, Senate Democrats would not be able to turn around and argue that she meets the criteria of “extraordinary circumstances” deserving a filibuster as defined by a recent bipartisan deal on judicial nominations. Some conservatives yesterday advanced the strategy of naming Janice Rogers Brown, who was confirmed last month to the D.C. “He is someone who is apparently still developing his philosophy, and that’s not good enough,” Minnery added, citing Gonzales’s “lack of open commitment to interpret the Constitution as it was written.” We are not enthused,” said Tom Minnery, vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family, a conservative advocacy group. “We would oppose him because we don’t believe he has a philosophy that we can determine. But a range of activists and congressional Republicans warned the White House against the move, saying they do not consider Gonzales a steadfast conservative.
Bush has long been intrigued by the idea of making Gonzales the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court, according to advisers, a prospect that might seem especially tempting in replacing Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the court’s first woman. Gonzales, as battle lines were drawn for selection of the first new justice in more than a decade. Many of President Bush’s conservative supporters lined up in staunch opposition yesterday to the candidate he might personally most want to name to the Supreme Court, his longtime friend and adviser, Attorney General Alberto R. The major story covered by the press continues to be the looming fight over Sandra Day O’Connor’s successor on the Supreme Court.Īctivists Gear Up For Nominee Fight (WaPo, A1)
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