Roberts frustrates Demos and GOP

WASHINGTON — Frustrating senators from both parties, Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee Judge John G. Roberts Jr. continued his delicate dance Wednesday around tough questions from the committee that will decide his fate, insisting that if he gave detailed answers — and spelled out his opinion — he could be seen as pre-judging issues that may come before him on the nation's highest court.

In his second day in the Senate Judiciary Committee's hot seat, Democrats offered the bulk of the criticism on Roberts' performance, saying he used the notion of judicial impartiality to deliberately hide his conservative views. But Republicans — most notably the committee chairman, Arlen Specter — could not get Roberts to talk about those views in greater detail.

Liberal groups counted more than 100 questions over two days that Roberts declined to answer, and several Democrats said they will remember that fact when the committee makes its decision on him next week. The confrontations came on the same day that Democrats received final word from the White House: They will not get to see documents from Roberts' tenure as a lawyer in President George H.W. Bush's administration.

"You're not entitled to the job here, God love you," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware. "Without any knowledge of your understanding of the law — because you will not share it with us — we are rolling the dice with you, judge."

Still, Roberts' third day before the Senate Judiciary Committee ended with few hitches for the nominee. He fielded a sweeping range of queries on capital punishment, abortion, voting rights and property rights with relative ease, and avoided stating a clear opinion on any of the issues.

Roberts said that memos he wrote as a young lawyer in the Reagan administration reflected his bosses' views and not necessarily his own. And in a calm, measured tone, Roberts said time and again that it would not be proper to discuss any issues he may have to rule on later as chief justice.

"I'm not standing for election," Roberts told Biden. "And it is contrary to the role of judges in our society to say that this judge should go on the bench because these are his or her positions, and those are the positions they are going to apply."

Roberts' demurrals extended across party lines: A day after Roberts said he supported an individual's right to privacy — the bedrock principle for the right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade — Sen. Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas and an opponent of abortion rights, urged him to repudiate Roe and agree that an "unborn child is a person." Roberts refused.