Ex-Judge Is Said to Be Pick At Justice

As a prominent judge in one of the country's busiest courts, Mukasey was involved in other high-profile cases, including battles between insurance companies and a World Trade Center developer after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He dismissed in 2004 lawsuits against an Italian insurance company for policies held by Holocaust victims.

Baruch Weiss, a partner at the law firm of Arent Fox and a former federal prosecutor in New York who appeared before Mukasey, described him as a very smart, business-like judge who kept things moving quickly in his courtroom and who has a reputation for integrity.

Weiss said Mukasey's appeal to the White House most likely was his independent stature; he is not, as he put it, "someone who would simply be doing the president's bidding."

"He is thoughtful, independent, very much a person of integrity -- he's nobody's plaything," said Paul A. Engelmayer, a Democrat and former supervisor in the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan. "If there is an analogy here, it's to [former FBI director] Louis Freeh -- who obviously bedeviled Clinton. He will not be a tool of the Bushies."

Some of Mukasey's public pronouncements have pleased conservatives. During one 2004 speech, excerpts of which were published by the Wall Street Journal, Mukasey strongly defended the controversial USA Patriot Act antiterrorism law and said its "Orwellian name . . . may very well be the worst thing about the statute."

He also scoffed at complaints from librarians and others that the statute gave the government too much power to spy on ordinary Americans, arguing that the allegations were not supported by evidence.

Mukasey, who was Manhattan's chief federal judge at the time, also defended a wave of terrorism-related immigration arrests by the FBI after the Sept. 11 attacks. "We should keep in mind that any investigation conducted by fallible human beings in the aftermath of an attack is bound to be either over-inclusive or under-inclusive," Mukasey said. "There are consequences both ways. The consequences of over-inclusiveness include condemnations. The consequences of under-inclusiveness include condolences."

In an op-ed article last month for the Journal, Mukasey said that the Padilla case and others underscore the shortcomings of the regular criminal justice system for terrorism defendants, and he advocated some kind of alternative system for handling such cases. That view is likely to raise eyebrows within the Justice Department, where many career attorneys pride themselves on the department's ability to try to convict terrorism suspects under traditional criminal procedures.

Andrew C. McCarthy, who led the prosecution of Rahman in front of Mukasey, wrote last week on the National Review Web site that the former judge would "instantly restore the department's well-deserved reputation for rectitude, scholarship, vision and sober judgment."

McCarthy, now a conservative commentator, portrayed Mukasey as meticulous and balanced in his handling of the Rahman case -- "carefully crafting insightful opinions on the proper balance between national security and civil liberties."

Some social conservatives have raised questions about Mukasey's 1994 ruling against Jia-Ging Dong, a Chinese man who sought political asylum in the United States. Dong had argued that he would be persecuted if he was sent back to China, because he had attempted to help his wife avoid a forced abortion under the communist country's one-child policy.

Immigration courts had ruled against Dong, finding that China's enforcement of the policy did not constitute persecution allowing asylum under U.S. law. Mukasey agreed and upheld the government's deportation order.

"Dong has not pointed to any evidence that would suggest that he was persecuted on a statutorily protected ground, much less evidence that 'compels' such a conclusion," Mukasey wrote in his ruling.

The view from Democrats and their allies yesterday seemed to be that Mukasey was about the best they could hope for from Bush. Ralph Neas, president of the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, predicted Mukasey's confirmation, assuming he is willing to answer "legitimate questions" from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"He seems like a bona fide conservative Republican, not a right-wing ideologue," Neas said. "He seems like someone who would attract strong bipartisan support and who could help restore public confidence in the Department of Justice."