Bush Chooses Roberts for Court

White House officials said Bush considered several women and minorities, but the aides did not explain why he bypassed them. He began the process by taking the files of 11 candidates with him to a European summit two weeks ago, but the list shifted repeatedly since, aides said. Bush interviewed Judge Edith Brown Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit at the White House on Saturday, and Republican allies were told Monday night and yesterday morning that she probably would get the nod.

Within hours, though, the White House signaled that she was not the choice, leading some GOP strategists to wonder aloud whether they had been used to spread disinformation or whether Bush changed his mind at the last minute. White House officials said last night Roberts was the only candidate Bush offered the job to and blamed reporters for trusting uninformed Republicans.

The nomination comes at a delicate moment for Bush's presidency, which was struggling with sagging poll numbers, a relentless war in Iraq and a stalled domestic program even before disclosures about the role of his top adviser, Karl Rove, in the CIA leak investigation. Some Republican strategists said the nomination could help the White House divert attention from the Rove scandal and reinvigorate Bush's political prospects.

The prospect of filling the first Supreme Court vacancy in 11 years has already mobilized political forces on both sides to raise vast financial resources in preparation for a struggle akin to a presidential campaign. From the moment O'Connor announced her retirement July 1, interest groups have been airing television and Internet advertising, blitzing supporters with e-mail, and pressuring elected officials to stand strong.

Liberal organizations that have been collecting dossiers on Roberts for months quickly moved to portray him as more extreme than his reputation.

"While he may not have been on Jim Dobson's short list of pre-approved nominees, let's be clear: John Roberts is no mainstream judge," said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, referring to one of the nation's most prominent conservative leaders.

Reid wanted to avoid such a reaction from Senate Democrats, concerned about falling into what he considered a Republican trap of condemning a nominee before hearings start, aides said. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an interview that the Democratic strategy is to withhold judgment for now, but he predicted an inevitable fight with Republicans over opening up Roberts's records and forcing him to talk about abortion and other topics. "The threshold question is: Will he be forthcoming in both answering questions and making available documents about his previous record?" he said. If Roberts refuses, as many Republicans expect, Schumer said Democrats will take the question to the public.

"We know Judge Roberts is no Sandra Day O'Connor, and the White House has sent a clear signal," Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who lost the presidential election to Bush in November, said in a statement. "There are serious questions that must be answered involving Judge Roberts's judicial philosophy as demonstrated over his short time on the appellate court."

Conservatives who have pressured Bush to fulfill what they saw as a promise to appoint a justice in the mold of Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas pronounced themselves satisfied. "He's going to be a fabulous justice," said Todd F. Gaziano, a scholar at the Heritage Foundation. "He's a very thoughtful person, a very collegial person, a very deliberate person."

Republican senators quickly rallied behind Roberts. "I don't know what his views are [about Roe v. Wade ], but groups have raised a lot of money to oppose this nominee," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said on CNN. "It is incumbent on these senators not to let these groups decide it, and listen to what he says. He has been exceptional in every way."

Roberts, who was born in Buffalo and raised in Long Beach, Ind., and earned undergraduate and law degrees at Harvard University, worked in the Justice Department and the White House during the Reagan administration. After a stint at Hogan & Hartson in Washington, he served as deputy to Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr under President George H.W. Bush. He was nominated for a seat on the D.C. Circuit in 1992, but his bid disappeared along with the president's reelection hopes. Roberts spent the Clinton administration back at Hogan & Hartson and participated in the recount fight after the 2000 election before being installed on the D.C. Circuit by the current president in 2003.

Suave, telegenic and well-traveled in Washington circles, Roberts is popular in both parties and widely considered among the most talented appellate lawyers of his generation. He argued 39 cases before the Supreme Court and spoke with awe about joining the justices he has appeared before so many times. "I always got a lump in my throat whenever I walked up those marble steps to argue a case before the court, and I don't think it was just from the nerves," he said last night.

Bush has been waiting since the day he took office for an opportunity to reshape a court that, except for the recount case, has bitterly disappointed conservatives over the years.

Although seven of the nine current justices were appointed by Republican presidents, the court has preserved abortion rights, affirmative action and a ban on school prayer -- if sometimes in a more circumscribed form -- while banning the death penalty in some instances and overturning laws against sodomy.

Perhaps no voice on that court has been more pivotal than O'Connor's. With three staunch conservatives on the right and four liberals on the left, O'Connor and sometimes Justice Anthony H. Kennedy have often cast the swing votes, and O'Connor's case-by-case pragmatism has generally forged the tone and direction the court has taken in key opinions. When she announced her retirement, it raised the stakes all the more.