Number: RL33059
Title: Proper Scope of Questioning of Supreme Court Nominees: The Current Debate
Authors: Denis Steven Rutkus, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: The issue of appropriate areas of questioning will likely be revisited on September 6, 2005, when the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to begin confirmation hearings on the nomination of appellate court judge John G. Roberts, Jr., to succeed retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Various members of the committee have notified the nominee of their intention to question him at the hearings regarding his views on a wide range of legal and constitutional issues and on the soundness of past Supreme Court rulings. Unwillingness by Judge Roberts to be forthcoming in answering their questions, they have said, might prompt them to vote against confirmation. In hearings before the Judiciary Committee in 2003 on his nomination to be a U.S. appellate court judge, Roberts (then a private attorney) declined, in response to repeated requests by some Senators on the committee, to critique past Court rulings and disclose personal views about various topical legal and constitutional issues. He has not indicated whether he will take a similar stance in responding to Senators' questions at hearings on his Supreme Court nomination.
Pages: 12
Date: September 1, 2005