Senate could take on concurrent hearings

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Senate can handle more than one Supreme Court nomination at a time if Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist decided to join Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in retirement, a leading senator said yesterday.

Justice O’Connor has announced her retirement, and speculation swirls about the future of the 80-year-old Chief Justice Rehnquist, who has thyroid cancer, and Justice John Paul Stevens, who is 85 and healthy.

The Senate has had dual confirmation hearings before and “frankly, it can be done,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will hold hearings on President Bush’s picks.

The last time there were simultaneous vacancies at the court was 1971. Justices Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan retired that September, about a week apart. Their successors were Chief Justice Rehnquist, then assistant attorney general in the Nixon administration, and Justice Lewis Powell Jr.

If Chief Justice Rehnquist retires, the Senate could have as many as three hearings going on simultaneously. For example, senators would have to hold hearings for a new chief justice if Mr. Bush promoted either Justice Antonin Scalia or Justice Clarence Thomas to the top spot.

Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican and committee chairman, said Chief Justice Rehnquist’s retirement could change the nomination equation for Mr. Bush.

“It would give the president a chance to put somebody whom the conservatives would really like very much to fill where Rehnquist has been philosophically on the court, and somebody who is more of a swing voter, like Justice O’Connor,” Mr. Specter told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales is considered a top contender for the high court, but several conservative groups have complained that he is too liberal, preferring such conservative federal appeals court judges as Samuel Alito, J. Michael Luttig, Michael McConnell, John Roberts Jr. and J. Harvie Wilkinson III.

Mr. Gonzales, however, is the president’s longtime friend and ally, and his nomination would put a Hispanic on the high court.

Mr. Bush will discuss the vacancies tomorrow with Mr. Specter; Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the committee’s top Democrat; Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee; and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Senators are split on whether they expect Chief Justice Rehnquist to step down anytime soon.

“I expect by the end of the year that he will retire because I think he’s really wanted to,” Mr. Hatch said. “That’s my sense, but I’ve been wrong before.”

Mr. Specter repeatedly has said he does not expect Chief Justice Rehnquist to retire.

“My own analysis is that the chief is not going to step down as long as his health holds up,” Mr. Specter said. “Having being engaged in a bout with cancer myself, I know that it’s good to get up every morning and have something that you have to do, something that is important to do.”