'Judges Are Not Politicians,' Roberts Says

"We cannot continue to ignore the injustice, the inequality and the gross disparities that exist in our society," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the committee's most senior member, told Roberts. He said Roberts's writings on civil rights suggest there are "real and serious reasons to be deeply concerned" about the direction he would take the court and about "his commitment to equal opportunity. . . . This hearing is John Roberts's job interview with the American people."

Roberts came for the interview well-prepared. Dressed in a dark suit, crisp white shirt and red tie, he introduced his parents; three sisters; his wife, Jane; and their two young children, whose faces alternately betrayed fear, amusement and awe at the scores of cameras and bright lights packed into the templelike hearing room. The senators, many of them grandparents, could not resist greeting the children as cameras clicked furiously. "You're not at all nervous, are you?" Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said to Jack Roberts, 4, who at one point sat in his father's lap and posed like a bodybuilder.

Just how much Roberts should say in response to today's questions was the subject of considerable partisan debate yesterday. Republicans warned Roberts against answering "litmus test" questions that could jeopardize his impartiality on cases likely to come before the Supreme Court.

"Some have said the nominees who do not spill their guts about whatever a senator wants to know are hiding something from the American people," said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). "These might be catchy sound bites, but they are patently false."

But Democrats argued that Americans have a right to know where Roberts stands on issues of profound import to their lives, disputing Republican contentions that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, refused to answer questions about her views on such issues as abortion, discrimination and criminal law.

"It is not enough to say that you will be fair," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), adding that he is sure that conservative Justice Antonin Scalia and the liberal Ginsburg think they, too, are fair. "But in case after case, they rule differently," Schumer said. "They approach the Constitution differently."

Some of the most pointed questions, however, may come from Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (Pa.), a Republican moderate and frequent maverick. While Specter said he does not expect Roberts to share his views on Roe v. Wade , he will question him on his previously expressed views on women's rights, term limits for federal judges and what he called the "extreme positions taken by the Supreme Court in denigrating the role of Congress" by striking down a number of laws it has passed.

While Republicans such as Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa charged that Democrats who seek Roberts's views on specific issues are doing so because they "only want judges who will do their political bidding on the bench," others made it clear that they have priorities they would like to see the Supreme Court uphold.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) decried federal courts that "are redefining the meaning of marriage, deciding when a human life is worthy of protection, running prisons and schools by decree," and "removing expressions of faith in the public square." He called Roe v. Wade a judicial "exercise of raw political power" and said "nearly 40 million children have been aborted in America."

Democrats renewed their request for a limited number of documents dating from Roberts's tenure in 1989 to 1993 as principal deputy solicitor general. From that perch, Roberts helped shape and argue the George H.W. Bush administration's positions in hundreds of Supreme Court cases. The letter, sent yesterday to President Bush, was signed by three Democratic members of the pivotal "Gang of 14," a bipartisan group considered key to averting any filibuster of Roberts's nomination.

Staff writer Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.