Hatch calls anti-Roberts ad 'a new low'

Sen. Orrin Hatch, a veteran of 10 tough Supreme Court confirmation battles, says he has seen many low blows in them. But he says a new NARAL Pro-Choice America TV ad attacking nominee John Roberts is the lowest of the low.

"This ad grossly distorts the record of John Roberts from start to finish. It has only one goal: to associate John Roberts with violent extremists," Hatch, R-Utah, said, adding the ad "is a new low." As former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and still one of its senior members, Hatch led many confirmation fights.

The ad — which shows an Alabama abortion clinic bombed in 1998 — says Roberts "filed court briefs supporting violent fringe groups and a convicted clinic bomber," and urges viewers to call senators to oppose him because "America can't afford a justice whose ideology leads him to excuse violence against other Americans."

Hatch complains that NARAL is attacking Roberts for a brief he wrote (as a deputy U.S. solicitor general) in a civil case that had nothing to do with bombings but instead was about whether abortion clinics could stop protesters from blockading their offices.

However, convicted clinic bomber Michael Bray and Operation Rescue were among many defendants in the case.

Roberts argued that abortion clinics had no right to bring their suit in federal court by using an 1871 federal anti-discrimination statute against anti-abortion protesters (and that blockades were already illegal under state law). Eventually, a 6-3 majority of the Supreme Court agreed.

Hatch complained that while NARAL "attempts to convince Americans that Roberts condoned or was insensitive to such violence, neither is true."

Hatch complained that the clinic shown in the ad was even bombed seven years after Roberts' involvement in the civil suit on blockades. "Moreover, the case involved nonviolent political protest, not politically motivated violence," Hatch said.

He added, "Not surprisingly NARAL also conveniently ignores the advice that John Roberts once gave on the issue of a pardon for a person convicted of violence at an abortion clinic: "No matter how lofty or sincerely held the goal, those who resort to violence to achieve it are criminals."'

Hatch added, "By unfairly linking John Roberts to this notorious criminal act, this ad is an insult to the good sense and fair-mindedness of the American people. If NARAL has any integrity, it will apologize to Judge Roberts and his family."

NARAL, however, is standing by its ad. It said in a press release that "the right, as expected, has gone ballistic in a scarily disciplined way" against it.

It said Roberts' "legal activism deprived law enforcement of the tool they were using to combat clinic violence," and came as he "was a senior political appointee responsible for shaping legal strategy."

Of note, FactCheck.org at the Annenberg Center of the University of Pennsylvania — a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that checks political claims — also attacked the ad as false, and said "the images used in the ad are especially misleading."

---

E-mail: lee@desnews.com