Specter Will Question Roberts

Senator Arlen Specter, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Supreme Court nominee John Roberts yesterday announcing that Roberts will face questions from the chairman during his confirmation hearings regarding his views on recent Supreme Court "commerce clause" jurisprudence.

In an interview, Specter told the New York Times "I think Republicans have a duty to pursue this line of questioning and any relevant line of questioning," and indicated that he shared concerns expressed by some Democrats that Roberts may continue a trend of decisions during the Rehnquist years that limited Congress' authority to legislate based on the constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.

Specter also told the Times that he is reviewing the law on attorney-client privilege that the Bush Administration is invoking to withhold documents Roberts worked on while serving as deputy solicitor general in the first Bush administration, and has not ruled out asking President Bush to waive privilege if necessary and share some or all of the documents. "This is not something that you do a knee-jerk partisan reaction to," said Specter.

As I've said from the outset of the nomination process, I think that senators do have an obligation to ask about various areas of constitutional law, and unless the nominee feels that answering would compromise his ability to participate in future decisions, he should answer those questions as best he can. I'm glad to see that Senator Specter will ask these questions, and I hope that all senators on the Judiciary Committee - Republican and Democrat - will ask other tough questions as well. The American people deserve as much.

I remain pleased that Senator Specter is running this confirmation process in the Senate; he and Senator Leahy may be taking heat from both sides for their civil and fair conduct thus far, but as far as I'm concerned, they're well on the right track.