By Chris Frates
Denver Post Staff Writer
U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar announced Sunday that he will vote for the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court chief-justice nominee John Roberts because Salazar believes Roberts will protect the rights of women and minorities.
“I don’t think he would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade,” said the Colorado Democrat, referring to the 1973 ruling that gave women the right to have an abortion.
The freshman senator said at a Denver news conference that he came to his decision after two conversations with Roberts.
Salazar said he had been concerned by memos Roberts wrote earlier in his career challenging affirmative action, civil rights and women’s rights.
But after talking with Roberts, Salazar concluded that the nominee “will not have an agenda on the bench.”
“He said that he understood that we had a history in America where there had been discrimination that had been tolerated by government for a long time and that a cornerstone of the ideal of the equal-protection clause of the 14th Amendment was that we create equality for all Americans,” Salazar said.
Salazar said his conversations with Roberts often revolved around their children. Salazar has two teenage daughters, and Roberts has a 4-year-old son, Jack, and a 5-year-old daughter, Josie.
Roberts told Salazar a story about how Josie asked whether their were any “girls on the court” or “girl senators.”
Josie took a picture with California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who voted against her father’s confirmation in committee.
“I know that he does not want to have Josie’s gender be at all a limitation to what she can achieve in life,” Salazar said. “And to me, that’s a reflection of a personal value that hopefully informs how he will view the law.”
Groups on both sides of the debate have pressured Salazar recently. He said he talked to groups, such as the NAACP, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the AFL-CIO, that asked him to vote against Roberts.
The state Republican Party collected more than 5,000 signatures backing Roberts.
And NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado delivered about 8,000 signatures asking Salazar to oppose Roberts’ confirmation, saying they did not believe that he was pro-choice.
“We’re disappointed, but we definitely take heart in the wording of his statements,” said Meg Froelich, NARAL’s interim executive director. “But we also understand that (retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s) seat has the potential to really radically change the course of the Supreme Court.”
If confirmed by the full Senate this week, as expected, Roberts would take the place of the late Chief Justice William Rehn quist. President Bush would then nominate someone to replace O’Connor, who was a swing vote on abortion rights.
Peter Brandt of the religious organization Focus on the Family said his group would like to see Roe vs. Wade overturned and hopes Bush will nominate a justice in the mold of Justices Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas.
Salazar said he is concerned Bush will nominate “a right- wing idealogue” and would not vote for such a nominee.
“If, in fact, he does that, I will be leading the fight against the confirmation even if it means being at the point of the spear,” Salazar said.
Salazar said he would oppose two recently confirmed circuit court judges, Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen, if Bush were to nominate them for the Supreme Court, saying they were unqualified.
Salazar was part of the bipartisan “gang of 14” that struck a deal to allow an up or down vote on Owen, Rogers Brown and another controversial nomination in exchange for allowing a filibuster on other Bush nominees.
Roberts will not face an extended debate, Salazar said, as he expects more than 60 senators – enough to end a filibuster – will vote to confirm him.
Staff writer Chris Frates can be reached at cfrates@denverpost.com or 303-820-1633.
