Only four days before President George W. 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.
Bush sent his candidate to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet senators who will ultimately decide Roberts' confirmation.
FIERCE CONTEST
After a series of fiercely contested Senate confirmation hearings which have stalled some key appointments, 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 Roberts, a softly-spoken conservative, a cautious, but not hostile, reception. Congressional observers said on Wednesday that 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 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 US law.
The court's opinion was written by another judge, Raymond Randolph, but supported in full by Roberts.
It ruled that when Congress gave the president the authority to use "all necessary and appropriate force" to fight terrorism, it also gave him the right to set up tribunals for suspected terrorists under any rules he deemed necessary.
The ruling provoked an outcry.
"It's of great concern for everyone working on human-rights issues because it makes it looks like there is no enforcement of the Geneva conventions," said Barbara Olshansky, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York. "It puts us squarely outside the world community of nations."
But critics are more likely to focus on Roberts' attitude towards abortion. As deputy solicitor general for the former president George Bush, he defended the government's withdrawal of federal funds from family planning organizations that mentioned abortion in their counselling of clients.
ROE V. WADE
In making that case, Roberts said the historic Supreme Court Roe versus Wade decision legalizing abortion was "wrongly decided and should be overruled."
At the confirmation hearings for his appeals court job two years ago, he claimed that he was simply advocating his client's point of view, and was not giving his own opinion, saying that he accepted Roe versus Wade was the "settled law" and would have no personal problem upholding it.
But Roberts will be under pressure to specify his own beliefs on abortion, as well as other social "hot-button" issues such as euthanasia.
Even if Roberts were committed to overturning Roe versus Wade, his confirmation would only reduce the Supreme Court majority in favor of the status quo from 6-3 to 5-4 -- but could lead to further limits on abortion rights.
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