Bush to look to Roberts model in new court pick

By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush is expected
to focus his search for a new Supreme Court nominee on a core
group of conservative judges and abandon an attempt to find
someone not already a judge, legal analysts said on Thursday.

Bush had plucked his little-known White House counsel,
Harriet Miers, out of obscurity for the nomination, saying he
hoped a non-judge would add perspective to the high court.

But the nomination set off a battle with conservatives over
whether she would move the court to the right, and Miers
abruptly pulled her name from consideration on Thursday.

Legal analysts said they believe Bush will go back to his
original shortlist and try to find someone with a background
similar to that of U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, a
conservative judge well-versed in constitutional law.

In contrast to Miers, whose confirmation process got off to
a rocky start with her prospects getting shakier by the day,
Bush’s nomination of Roberts sailed through to win U.S. Senate
approval even from many Democrats who were impressed by his Ivy
League credentials and knowledge of constitutional law.

“They’re probably going to turn back to the Roberts model,”
said Brad Berenson, a Washington lawyer and former associate
White House counsel.

Bush pledged on Thursday he would move quickly to name a
replacement for Miers, who withdrew amid a chorus of criticism
about her views and background.

OLD NAMES RESURFACING

Names that circulated before the surprise Miers pick are
seen as once again in play. Those include conservative federal
appeals court judges Michael McConnell, Michael Luttig, Samuel
Alito, Edith Jones, Alice Batchelder and Michigan Supreme Court
Justice Maura Corrigan.

Other candidates were seen as appeals court judges Diane
Sykes, Karen Williams, Harvie Wilkinson and Priscilla Owen,
although Owen, bitterly opposed by Democrats, was reported to
have withdrawn her name from consideration for the court
opening for which Bush eventually nominated Miers.

“The overall lesson of the two nominations taken together
is that there is considerable safety in drawing from the very
small pool of people who are universally considered qualified
for appointment,” Berenson said.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law
and Justice, said he thought an announcement of a Miers
replacement could come by the middle of next week.

“It’s not as if they don’t have a shortlist here — they
do. I expect there will be quick movement,” Sekulow said,
adding that Bush would likely pick someone already on the
federal bench.

Roger Pilon, a constitutional scholar at the libertarian
Cato Institute, said: “The hope is that the president — or
more likely someone on his staff who is more familiar with
these issues will prevail upon him to select someone of the
highest caliber.”

Eugene Volokh, a professor at the UCLA School of Law, said
that if Bush were looking for a Roberts type, he could turn to
McConnell, a judge on the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of
Appeals and leading First Amendment scholar.

Luttig, who sits on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in
Richmond, is “tremendously well-respected” in conservative
circles, Volokh said.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ferraro)