The battle over John Roberts’ nomination to the Supreme Court has just gotten a mite tougher for his critics: the ABA has given him a “well qualified rating.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee John Roberts earned a “well qualified” rating from the American Bar Association on Wednesday, clearing one hurdle in his path to joining the high court.
The rating by unanimous vote of an ABA committee was disclosed as the Senate Judiciary Committee announced plans for the start of confirmation hearings on Sept. 6. Roberts will face almost an hour of questioning from each of the 18 senators on the committee.
The committee also will hold one hearing that will be closed to the public.
For more than 50 years, the ABA has evaluated the credentials of nominees for the federal bench, though the nation’s largest lawyers’ group has no official standing in the process. Supreme Court nominees get the most scrutiny.
This is the fourth time the ABA has rated Roberts. He was designated as well qualified in 2001 when he was nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He earned the same rating in 2003 when he was nominated again for the appeals courts and then confirmed. He was rated as qualified as an appeals court nominee in 1992, but the Senate never took up that nomination.
So as far as his legal credentials and reputation he has with lawyers who belong to both parties is concerned, Roberts is a slam dunk. That means the real battles will come over his actual positions, whether vital info is being held back from the full Senate’s conderation, and whether there have been any irregularities in supplying or locating information about him.
So it looks like he’s a slam-dunk. But, even though it’s virtually certain he’ll be confirmed, there could be some rocky moments along the way. And in the end it could be a slam, but not exactly a dunk…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.