Roberts Papers Being Delayed

In the meantime, one senior Republican strategist said, Bush advisers are attempting to anticipate "which documents will be used by people committed to being against John Roberts" and preparing to counter expected attacks. "We will be prepared," the strategist said.

A prominent conservative strategist working closely with the administration on the nomination said some of the carping among Republicans that the White House has been flat-footed in handling questions about Roberts is unfair. Officials could not have carried out an exhaustive review of documents in government archives without involving large numbers of people and tipping their hand that Roberts was a likely nominee.

But the White House's delay in releasing Reagan-era documents has angered Senate Democrats, coming as it has on top of the refusal to disclose documents they have requested from Roberts's 1989-1993 tenure as principal deputy solicitor general in the first Bush administration.

Citing attorney-client privilege, the administration similarly has declined to release roughly 7,700 pages of documents from the same era that The Washington Post requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The requested documents cover advice Roberts gave then-Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr on cases including public school prayer, abortion, affirmative action and voting rights.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, wrote President Bush yesterday asking that Reagan-era documents be released on a rolling basis, as the White House completes its review. "Timely cooperation from the Administration is essential to the Committee's preparations for the upcoming hearings," Leahy said.

In other news, a major business organization, the National Association of Manufacturers, is expected to endorse the Roberts nomination, business lobbyists said.

The announcement is likely to be the beginning of a series of trade association nods to the Republican nominee and would represent the start of a first-ever lobbying campaign for a Supreme Court nominee by the corporate lobbying elite.

A spokesman for the association declined to comment. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is also studying Roberts's record and is considered likely to endorse him, possibly early next month, a chamber official said.

Staff writers R. Jeffrey Smith and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum contributed to this report.