Monday, July 25, 2005
Some of Roberts' Docs Will Be Withheld
John Roberts worked for two Republican administrations, offering private legal assessments that have yet to be opened to historians or the public. Now that Roberts is President Bush's choice to join the Supreme Court, some Senate Democrats want to see the documents he produced - all of them.
No, responded one White House representative. We'll see, said another.
Roberts worked in the Reagan White House counsel's office from 1982-1986. He also was principal deputy solicitor general, a political appointment in the administration of the first President Bush.
Some records already are available to the public at the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan, in Simi Valley, Calif., and George H.W. Bush, in College Station, Texas. Others have yet to be cleared for security and personal privacy by archivists and, under law, by representatives of the former administrations and the current president.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to ask for such material for its hearings. But some Democrats, including Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, have urged the White House to release "in their entirety" any documents written by Roberts.
Citing privacy and precedent, Fred D. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator guiding Roberts through the process on behalf of the White House, said Sunday the Bush administration does not intend to release everything.
Material that would come under attorney-client privilege would be withheld, Thompson said, calling it a principle followed by previous presidents of both political parties.
"We hope we don't get into a situation where documents are asked for that folks know will not be forthcoming and we get all hung up on that," Thompson told NBC's "Meet the Press."
Democratic senators sounded skeptical if not dismissive of the privacy claims.
"It's a total red herring to say, 'Oh, we can't show this,"' Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont told ABC's "This Week."
Leahy, senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said material written in confidence at the Justice Department by other nominees has been provided in the past - for instance by President Ronald Reagan when he nominated William H. Rehnquist for chief justice.
"I want to ask him full and fair questions," Leahy said. "It's a standard I would have for any nominee to the Supreme Court."
Documents could be important to the process when little is known about a nominee, Durbin said. "A lot has to do with whether or not you can fill in the empty vessel with the information that tells you about this person."
Another Judiciary Committee Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, said the goal is to learn about Roberts' judicial philosophy and legal reasoning.
"This is not a game of 'gotcha,"' Schumer said. "Document requests ... are a means to simply determining Justice Roberts' judicial views."
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., thought some documents from Roberts' work for the solicitor general probably could be turned over, but not material from his time as a lawyer for the first President Bush.
If communications between presidential aides and the president "are some day going to be made public, I think it could have a real chilling effect on the kind of candor in communications that people would have with the president," McCain said.
John Roberts worked for two Republican administrations, offering private legal assessments that have yet to be opened to historians or the public. Now that Roberts is President Bush's choice to join the Supreme Court, some Senate Democrats want to see the documents he produced - all of them.
No, responded one White House representative. We'll see, said another.
Roberts worked in the Reagan White House counsel's office from 1982-1986. He also was principal deputy solicitor general, a political appointment in the administration of the first President Bush.
Some records already are available to the public at the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan, in Simi Valley, Calif., and George H.W. Bush, in College Station, Texas. Others have yet to be cleared for security and personal privacy by archivists and, under law, by representatives of the former administrations and the current president.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to ask for such material for its hearings. But some Democrats, including Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, have urged the White House to release "in their entirety" any documents written by Roberts.
Citing privacy and precedent, Fred D. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator guiding Roberts through the process on behalf of the White House, said Sunday the Bush administration does not intend to release everything.
Material that would come under attorney-client privilege would be withheld, Thompson said, calling it a principle followed by previous presidents of both political parties.
"We hope we don't get into a situation where documents are asked for that folks know will not be forthcoming and we get all hung up on that," Thompson told NBC's "Meet the Press."
Democratic senators sounded skeptical if not dismissive of the privacy claims.
"It's a total red herring to say, 'Oh, we can't show this,"' Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont told ABC's "This Week."
Leahy, senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said material written in confidence at the Justice Department by other nominees has been provided in the past - for instance by President Ronald Reagan when he nominated William H. Rehnquist for chief justice.
"I want to ask him full and fair questions," Leahy said. "It's a standard I would have for any nominee to the Supreme Court."
Documents could be important to the process when little is known about a nominee, Durbin said. "A lot has to do with whether or not you can fill in the empty vessel with the information that tells you about this person."
Another Judiciary Committee Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, said the goal is to learn about Roberts' judicial philosophy and legal reasoning.
"This is not a game of 'gotcha,"' Schumer said. "Document requests ... are a means to simply determining Justice Roberts' judicial views."
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., thought some documents from Roberts' work for the solicitor general probably could be turned over, but not material from his time as a lawyer for the first President Bush.
If communications between presidential aides and the president "are some day going to be made public, I think it could have a real chilling effect on the kind of candor in communications that people would have with the president," McCain said.
