Print

Mail

wiki links

Senators demand Roberts' legal work for government

Supreme Court nominee John Roberts worked for two Republi-can administrations, offering private legal assessments that have yet to be opened to historians or the public.

Now that Roberts is President George W. 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 himself was headed back to Capitol Hill yesterday for a fourth day of private meetings with senators who will sit in judgment of his nomination. He had a morning meeting with Diane Feinstein, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Roberts worked in the Reagan White House counsel's office from 1982 to 1986. He also was principal deputy solicitor general, a political appointment in the administration of former president George Bush.

Some records already are available to the public at the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan, in Simi Valley, California, 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 Senator John Kerry, have urged the White House to release "in their entirety" any documents written by Roberts.

Citing privacy and precedent, Fred Thompson, the former senator guiding Roberts through the process on behalf of the White House, said on 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.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appeared more open to considering such requests.

"Generally, that's not something that the administration or any White House would be inclined to share because it is so sensitive and ... does chill communications between line attorneys and their superiors within the Department of Justice," Gonzales said on Fox News Sunday.

"That would be something that we'd have to look at very, very carefully," he said. "Rather than prejudge the issue, let's wait for the Judiciary Committee to make its requests, and then we can evaluate the requests and hopefully reach an appropriate accommodation."

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,"' Patrick Leahy 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.

"And of course there is no lawyer-client privilege," he said. "Those working in the solicitor general's office are not working for the president. They're working for you and me and all the American people."
This story has been viewed 1660 times.