Roberts Frustrates Committee Democrats

"All I'm saying is, you wouldn't want the government telling you what to do," Feinstein said. Roberts replied: "Well, I'm happy to say that as a general matter." But when asked if there "should be a basic right of privacy" involved, he said: "Well, that's getting into a legal question."

Roberts testified that he believes it would be "very appropriate" for Congress and state legislatures to consider legislation to effectively modify a recent Supreme Court ruling that expanded the right of local governments to force the sale of private property in the name of economic development. "What the court was saying is 'There is this power' and then it's up to the legislature to determine whether it wants that to be available," Roberts said. "You can protect" people's rights, he added.

Roberts was pressed about a death-penalty position he took during his 1989-1993 tenure as deputy U.S. solicitor general. Roberts had argued that death row inmates have no constitutional right to ask federal courts to consider a new claim of innocence. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) asked if he still holds that view.

Roberts replied, "The question is: Do you allow someone who has raised several claims over the years to suddenly say at the last minute that somebody who just died was the person who committed the murder?"

Throughout two days of questions and answers, Roberts has offered few details about his life. But the Indiana native, who attended a private high school and graduated at the top of his class as a Harvard undergraduate and law student, grew animated when Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) asked whether he understood there were real people behind the legal precedents, "families behind footnotes." "What would the powerless, the disenfranchised, minorities and others see in your life experience that would lead them to believe that they would have a fighting chance in your court?" Durbin asked.

Roberts said his life has been comfortable but "isolated in no sense." Critics, he said, should consider the clients he represented: death row inmates and corporations, welfare recipients and environmental groups.

On the issue of abortion, Roberts declined to answer a Republican's question whether a fetus is a person or property. On Tuesday, Roberts said there is a constitutional right to privacy, but yesterday he refused to say whether he agrees with Justice Clarence Thomas, who has written that there is no "general right to privacy." Such a right is considered the legal underpinning of a right to abortion.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) returned to civil rights, disputing Roberts's contention that memos he wrote as a young administration lawyer did not necessarily reflect his own views but rather reflected those of the administration he served.

Questioned by Republicans, Roberts agreed that the Supreme Court should clarify its rulings on public expressions of religious faith. "I think everyone would agree that the religion jurisprudence under the First Amendment, the establishment clause and the free-exercise clause, could be clearer," he said. And as chief justice, he said, he would work to unite a court that has been sharply divided on many major issues.

Staff writers Amy Goldstein and R. Jeffrey Smith contributed to this report.