Hatch warns Obama not to appoint activist to Supreme Court

SALT LAKE CITY — After Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced Friday that he is retiring, Sen. Orrin Hatch quickly warned President Barack Obama not to replace him with an activist judge — or Republicans will wage a vigorous and extended fight.

"There's going to be a whale of a fight if he appoints an activist to the court. And that's not good for him, it's not good for the Senate and it's not good for the country," Hatch said at a news conference.

Hatch, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and its former chairman, said he is concerned that Obama has nominated to federal appeals courts several activists who he says follow their own views and opinions more than the law. He worries that Obama may do that with the next Supreme Court nominee.

"The law should control the judge, and not the other way around," Hatch said. "President Obama has already picked some of the most activist judicial nominees that I have seen in my 34 years in the Senate" for circuit courts of appeals.

Hatch said, "He (Obama) has a propensity to choose people who don't care what the law is. They're going to make the law from the bench. Judges are not supposed to do that."

Hatch said Stevens is the most liberal justice on the current court, but Hatch does not consider him to be an activist and said he would even vote to confirm him today if he were a new nominee. He said while he disagrees with many of Stevens' decisions, he generally acted within the constraints that judges should.

Hatch said the only current justice who he has opposed was Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama. "Her record was one of activism," he said.

Hatch urged Obama to follow the example of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, who Hatch said consulted with him and other Republicans on such justices as Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who he said achieved large bipartisan confirmation votes.

"I hope he will at least try to appoint somebody who will get a huge bipartisan vote," Hatch said. "If he will, he's going to go down in history as a better president."

Hatch said he has some people in mind — who are liberal but not activists — who he would like to see nominated, but said he would not name them publicly because that probably "would be the kiss of death."

Hatch added, "If he appoints somebody that both sides can agree with, I think that person will go through relatively quickly, and the president will look good in the process. And it will look like he really means it when he says he'd to do things in a bipartisan way. We haven't seen any real evidence of that."

Hatch said he is willing and stands ready to work with the president "if he can work with us."

Hatch also praised Stevens at the news conference, saying he "had a profound impact on the judiciary and the law. He is a remarkably dedicated public servant and a profoundly decent human being. All Americans should than him for his dedicated service."

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