Rieders Participates in Supreme Court Justice Call

From the July 15, 2005 edition of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette:

State groups want moderate Supreme Court justice nominee: Local attorney among conference call panelists

By Katie Prince, Sun-Gazette Staff

Members of several state lobby groups, among them a local attorney, urged the president and members of the senate Thursday to be mindful to select a “moderate, not an ideologue” when choosing a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

During a conference call, members of Pennsylvanians for a Fair and Independent Court cited recent 5-4 decisions that demonstrate how just one Supreme Court justice can shape public policy both nationally and in Pennsylvania.

The discussion was moderated by Lauren Townsend of Citizens for Consumer Justice and each of the participants — which included city lawyer Clifford Rieders of the North Central Trial Lawyers Association and representatives from Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Consumer Health Coalition and the Center for Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights — highlighted what is at stake in the impending nomination fight.

“The legacy of common-sense justice embodied by Sandra Day O’Connor shouldn’t be replaced with (that of) an ideologue,” Townsend said at the outset. “If she is replaced by someone not fair and impartial ... cases could be overturned.”

Particular interests of the participating groups dominated much of the discussion, but, overall, the 30-minute conversation was less a dissertation on case law than a plea to President Bush and the Senate, particularly Judicial Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to conduct open hearings and select a “fair and independent” candidate.

Townsend and several others participating in the discussion claimed they are “reaching out to all corners of the state” in mounting an effort to educate the public about the historical importance of the upcoming selection process.

All the participants stopped short of predicting any candidates or speculating what Bush was seeking in a nominee, but indicated concern that politics might unduly influence the decision.

Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, claimed he is interested in seeing a candidate “not liberal or conservative” but whose “first constituency is the Constitution.”

The trend in recent years has tended toward politicization of judges, said Rieders in a subsequent interview with the Sun-Gazette Thursday afternoon.

Rieders was considered for a federal judgeship twice — once by President Bill Clinton and once by Bush — and compared the two selection processes.

When he was interviewed during the Clinton administration, he said, he was not asked about his political views but instead about political connections. Because connections mattered more than politics, he added, many of the nominees during that period were actually “quite conservative and made a lot of people angry.”

Times have changed, though, and Rieders noted that during a more recent interview for a federal judgeship he was asked about hot-button issues, including his position on abortion rights.

“As years go on there is an increasing emphasis on asking applicants for very specific views of highly politically charged topics,” he said, explaining that those involved in making the nominations or confirming them seek a candidate who is predictable.

“The issue used to be judicial temperament,” he said. “Nobody looked at political stripes.”

Rieders admitted he is curious whether Bush will seek either a justice who satisfies the right-wing evangelicals that comprise a considerable portion of his constituency, or one who reflects America without being in any particular corner of the political arena.

Those “fad issues,” as Rieders called them, likely will be decided by whomever is appointed to fill O’Connor’s seat, and the issue is all the more crucial as Chief Justice William Rehnquist battles thyroid cancer and makes trips in and out of the hospital.

Patrick Hopkins, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates, noted his concern that a different court might have upheld a Nebraska abortion ban that did not have a provision when the health of the mother was threatened.

Calling provisions in abortion bans that preserve the life of a woman “mainstream,” Hopkins said he thought the issue would get to court again soon.

Bush has announced he plans to name a nominee before he leaves for vacation on July 28.