Roberts could unify, televise court -Specter
Posted on: Tuesday, 6 September 2005, 16:01 CDT
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If John Roberts is confirmed as U.S. chief justice, his Supreme Court might reverse tradition and permit its proceedings to be televised, a top Senate Republican said on Tuesday.
"I think that Judge Roberts may have a real chance to bring the court together based on the personality which I have seen, if he is confirmed," said Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter.
"And I think he may have a little different view about television, something that I have advocated for more than a decade in the court," said Specter, of Pennsylvania. "He's a new generation."
If confirmed by the Senate, Roberts, 50, a federal appeals court judge the past two years, would become one of the youngest U.S. chief justices in history.
Roberts would replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died on Saturday at the age of 80 after a long bout with cancer. Rehnquist ruled the court with a firm conservative hand.
"Judge Roberts has projected a very unique persona as he has talked about modesty and humility," said Specter, whose committee will open confirmation hearings on Monday.
Despite Specter's words of praise for Roberts, he has said he has not decided if he will vote for him and plans to ask the nominee some tough questions at the confirmation hearing.
Specter noted that the court has had a number of divided decisions in recent years with sharply conflicting opinions by opposing justices.
"I would hope that the chief justice would work for consensus," Specter told reporters.
"I think there needs to be a collegial, modest approach to try to bring the court together so that we have some idea of continuity and what these decisions mean and their staying power," Specter said.
On a personal note, Specter recalled, "I argued a case in the Supreme Court a few years back and Chief Justice Rehnquist ran a stopwatch, interrupted in mid-sentence."
"The word is, he was looking for a way to interrupt somebody in the middle of the word 'if,"' Specter said.
Source: REUTERS
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