Hatch Says Obama Told Him He Won’t Pick ‘Extremist’ for Court

By James Rowley and Brian Faler

May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said President Barack Obama told him he won’t nominate a “radical or an extremist” to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hatch, of Utah, also said he expected the president to make his choice in a matter of days.

The senator said that in a phone conversation yesterday, Obama sought to reassure him that when he spoke last week of picking a justice with “empathy” for ordinary Americans, he didn’t mean he would select someone who would focus on pushing their political views into the law.

“That’s language that only applies to real activist justices,” Hatch said. “He assured me that’s not what he meant when he talks about empathy; he is talking about a judge who has a heart but still lives with in the framework of the law,” the senator said. “That was good.”

Hatch also said Obama told him “he is pragmatic about it. He thinks most people will be happy” with his choice.

Souter, 69, announced on May 1 that he will retire after the court’s current term ends in late June or early July.

Obama has said he wants a justice confirmed by the time the court reconvenes in October, and Hatch predicted that the president would announce his selection by the end of the week. While saying the president didn’t give him any sense of the timing of his decision, the senator added, “I’d be surprised if it went beyond this week.”

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Obama gave him a timetable for when he would announce a nominee. He wouldn’t say what Obama told him, nor would he comment on Hatch’s prediction that the announcement would come by week’s end.

Consultation Pledge

Hatch, a former Judiciary Committee chairman, said the president didn’t discuss any specific candidates with him. Obama did pledge to consult him when he has a list of nominees, the senator said.

“He said he would get back to me,” Hatch, 75, told reporters. “I’d like to chat with him” about possible nominees “because I think I could save him a lot of pain over the long run,” said Hatch, whose backing of Ruth Bader Ginsberg helped pave the way for her confirmation in 1993 as President Bill Clinton’s first Supreme Court nominee.

In a statement, the White House said Obama “vowed to consult regularly with senators in both parties to ensure an orderly confirmation process that will allow Justice Souter’s replacement to be confirmed by the beginning of the court’s next session.”

Specter Called

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican who switched to the Democratic Party last week, also got a call from Obama to discuss replacing Souter.

Specter, a former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that the president “asked for recommendations and I told him I would think it over and get back to him.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday that the process of getting a nominee confirmed “has to be a decent ways down the field” by the end of July. “We’re on a fairly tight timeline,” he said.

Obama wants “somebody with a record of excellence, somebody with a record of integrity, somebody who understands the rule of law, and somebody who understands how being a judge affects Americans’ everyday lives,” Gibbs said.

Preparations Made

The administration has made preparations to fill judicial vacancies, and Obama’s advisers “began identifying a long time ago candidates for what we assumed might be an eventual pick for the Supreme Court,” Gibbs said at his daily news briefing.

Republicans promised to give a fair hearing to Obama’s choice and conceded that with Democrats controlling the 100- member Senate with 59 votes, there was little chance of defeating a nominee.

“The only way they can screw this up” is “not vet the person well” or appoint someone “so outside of the mainstream they don’t go down well with the public,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican.

“I don’t think the public wants a radically liberal judge,” Graham said. “If that happened it would unite the Republicans and lose moderate Democrats. That’s the only scenario I would see where a nominee would be in trouble.”

To contact the reporters on this story: James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net ; Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 5, 2009 00:01 EDT

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