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White House interviews candidates for Rehnquist post, official says
BY JAN CRAWFORD GREENBURG
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Stepping up preparations for the possible retirement of Chief Justice William Rehnquist - perhaps as early as next week - the White House has narrowed its list to a handful of federal appeals court judges and has conducted interviews with leading contenders, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
Senior White House officials and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have interviewed top candidates and briefed President Bush, but the president has not made a decision, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
White House officials also consider Gonzales to be a possible nominee, according to the official and other sources close to the administration. But the focus has been on the other judges, leaving Gonzales in a separate category because of the president's longstanding familiarity with him, the official said.
Gonzales, 49, would meet fierce opposition from the conservative groups that see him as too moderate to replace the conservative Rehnquist. As a Texas Supreme Court justice, Gonzales voted to strike down some state abortion regulations, and as White House counsel, he opposed taking a hard line against affirmative action.
But Bush has long said he would like to name the first Hispanic to the Supreme Court and likes the idea of the "Gonzales Court," sources close to the White House said. The political calculation for Bush is whether he risks offending his conservative base to make Gonzales chief justice or holds off, gambling that a liberal or more moderate justice - such as John Paul Stevens or Sandra Day O'Connor - would also retire during his presidency.
"The way the process is going, he's held off to the side," the official said of Gonzales. "Assuming it's not (Gonzales), what about everybody else?"
The administration official said the White House is positioned to move quickly should Rehnquist retire. But officials are not dramatically narrowing the list ranking the contenders or making recommendations to the president at this point because they are "serious about being respectful to the chief (justice)," the official said.
It's widely assumed in Washington legal and political circles that the 80-year-old Rehnquist will announce his retirement next week after more than 33 years on the court, 19 of them as chief justice. He announced in October that he is suffering from thyroid cancer and missed five months of oral arguments before returning to the bench in late March.
But in recent weeks, observers have begun suggesting that Rehnquist might stay on the bench. Justice Antonin Scalia told law clerks recently that Rehnquist is doing better than has been reported, and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Judiciary Committee that would hold hearings on a nominee, speculated last week after a lunch at the court that Rehnquist would not step down.
Given the uncertainty, the White House has been quietly researching and interviewing prospective nominees, the official said. If Rehnquist retires, the White House likely would announce the nominee within days, the official said.
In addition to Gonzales, senior adviser Karl Rove and White House Counsel Harriet Miers have been central to the interview process.
The White House has focused on several nominees with established conservative records: Judges J. Michael Luttig and J. Harvie Wilkinson of the Richmond, Va.-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.
The official said the administration also has considered a number of judges President Bush has nominated to the federal appeals courts, including: John G. Roberts, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Michael McConnell, of the Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, and William Pryor, of the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
Of those nominees, Luttig, Alito and Roberts have emerged as the leading contenders, sources close to the White House said. But Wilkinson remains very much in consideration, the administration official said.
Luttig, 51, is the most frequently mentioned frontrunner whose nomination would immediately energize the conservative groups. An appellate judge on the prestigious 4th Circuit for 14 years, he is known as a principled conservative with a keen intellect and crisp writing style.
Alito, 55, is a New Jersey native often called "Scalito" because he shares Scalia's conservative views, but not his sharp elbows. Like Luttig, he was nominated to the appeals court by President George H.W. Bush. He also worked in the Reagan Justice Department before being tapped as U.S. attorney for New Jersey in 1987, a post he held three years until nominated to the 3rd circuit.
Roberts, 50, has seen his stock rise in recent months. Widely considered one of the top appellate lawyers to argue before the Supreme Court, Roberts was first nominated to the bench near the end of the elder Bush's presidency, and the nomination died in the Senate. He was confirmed two years ago with bipartisan support, but less is known about his views than those of other contenders.
At 61, Wilkinson is the oldest of the likely contenders, which is a strike against him, sources said. A courtly Virginian who once taught law and served as editor of the editorial page of the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Wilkinson also worked in the Reagan Justice Department.
Sources close to the White House said McConnell and Pryor are long shots. McConnell, a former University of Chicago Law School professor, is seen as too unpredictable - conservative on some issues, such as religion, but less so on others, including a recent opinion that exposes law enforcement officers to liability. He also has criticized the reasoning of Bush v. Gore, which ended the statewide recounts in Florida and handed the presidency to Bush.
A former Alabama Attorney General, Pryor would bring political plusses for Bush, but would be highly controversial. At 43, he is seen as too young to be chief, so he would be nominated in a scenario that would include elevating Scalia to chief, which would mean two highly contentious confirmation hearings - a route the White House would prefer to avoid, sources close to the White House said.
Pryor also has been highly critical of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that a woman had a constitutional right to an abortion. Senate Democrats filibustered his nomination to the appeals court, and he accepted a recess appointment by Bush. He was later renominated and confirmed last month, after a group of Senate Republicans and Democrats agreed to reserve filibusters only for "extraordinary circumstances." Three Republicans voted against him in the Senate.
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