Liberals bracing for Roberts hearing

[steve2470]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/25/liberals_bracing_for_roberts_hearing/

WASHINGTON -- An influential liberal group yesterday announced its opposition to Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr., as Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee hinted at lines of attack two weeks in advance of confirmation hearings on his nomination.

People for the American Way, which led fights against the Supreme Court nominations of Robert H. Bork and Clarence Thomas, released a 50-page report detailing conservative stands that Roberts took as a legal aide in the Reagan White House and as a federal appeals judge since 2003. Positions espoused by Roberts suggest that he would seek to undermine laws passed to promote civil rights, access to courts, and equality for women, minorities, and people with disabilities, said Ralph G. Neas, the group's president.

''Confirming John Roberts would endanger much of the progress made by the nation in civil rights over the past half-century," Neas said at a news conference where he announced his group's decision to oppose Roberts. ''John Roberts devoted himself to finding problems with solutions, not to finding solutions to problems."

Also yesterday, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, a leading moderate Democrat, vowed to press Roberts on whether he believes in a constitutional right to privacy, the underpinning for the Roe v. Wade court decision that established a right to abortion in 1973.

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[wli]

1. confirming Roberts would reverse all human rights laws since 1215 n/t