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Bush nominee faces flak

Julian Borger

Critics to focus on Judge Roberts' attitude towards abortion

WASHINGTON: Only four days before U.S. President George Bush chose him as his nominee for the Supreme Court, John Roberts ruled to give the administration a free hand in holding military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, critics claimed on Wednesday.

Mr Bush sent his candidate to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet Senators who will ultimately decide Judge Roberts' confirmation. After a series of fiercely contested Senate confirmation hearings which have stalled some key appointments, Mr Bush said he hoped that this time the judge's hearings would ``move forward in a dignified, civil way''.

In their initial reactions, most Democratic Senators gave Judge Roberts, a soft-spoken conservative, a cautious, but not hostile, reception. Congressional observers said that Mr Roberts' relative lack of experience as a judge, only two years on a Federal appeals court, could help his confirmation, as he has left few momentous rulings in his wake which could be subject to attack.

However, human rights lawyers pointed to a decision made only last Friday, when Mr Roberts was on a three-judge panel at the Federal appeals court in Washington, which rejected claims by a Guantanamo inmate, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, that the military tribunals violated international and U.S. law.

But Government critics at home are more likely to focus on Judge Roberts' attitude towards abortion. As deputy solicitor general for the first President Bush, he defended the Government's withdrawal of Federal funds from family planning organisations that mentioned abortion in their counselling of clients.

In making that case, Judge Roberts said the historic Supreme Court Roe v Wade decision legalising abortion was ``wrongly decided and should be overruled''. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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