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Roberts gets bar association's top ratingSenate Judiciary Committee outlines hearing scheduleFrom Bill Mears RELATED
SPECIAL REPORTYOUR E-MAIL ALERTSWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Supreme Court nominee John Roberts has received the American Bar Association's highest rating for professional qualifications, an important legal and political benchmark, as he prepares for Senate confirmation hearings. Roberts, a 50-year-old federal appeals court judge, was rated "well-qualified," the group's top rating. He was screened and evaluated by a special committee that reviews all nominees to the federal bench. Roberts received a similar rating in 2002, when he was being considered for his current job on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. President Bush's decision in July to nominate Roberts as the first Supreme Court appointment of his presidency was well-received by many Republicans. Democrats, however, vowed a thorough review in the Senate. If confirmed by the Senate, Roberts would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who gained a reputation as a moderate swing voter in her 24 terms on the nation's highest court. The ABA ratings are designed to help brief lawmakers and the public by offering what the groups says is an unbiased look at a nominee's "integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament." The ABA has been conducting such reviews for more than 50 years. The ratings traditionally have carried significant political weight with senators, since the ABA is the country's largest group of lawyers. More details of the evaluation are likely to be released later, according to the ABA. The Bush administration earlier had refused to work with the ABA's Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary when considering nominees, saying the group was unfairly evaluating some conservative nominees. The group was criticized by conservatives when Justice Clarence Thomas received only a "qualified" rating when he was being considered for the high court in 1991. The other possible rating is "not qualified." Also Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced more details on the confirmation hearings for Roberts, saying that lawmakers on the panel will get nearly an hour each to question the judge. Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, and the committee's top Democrat, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, told the 16 other senators that during the first round of questions on September 7 they will get a half hour to question Roberts, and in a second round they will get 20 minutes. Further rounds of questioning also could be scheduled. In another development, more than 38,000 documents relating to Roberts' work in the Reagan White House are to be released Thursday. The documents had been among those sought by the Judiciary Committee as it prepares for the hearings. They cover Roberts' service as a lawyer in the White House counsel's office from 1982 to 1986. The National Archives and the Reagan Presidential Library is coordinating the release, which covers Roberts' work on such issues as abortion, school prayer and affirmative action. Roberts also worked in the White House of President George H.W. Bush as deputy solicitor general from 1989 to 1993. The current administration has refused to turn over documents from that period, citing executive privilege. Leahy issued a statement thanking the ABA for its work but saying it is "regrettable that they were not able to take the time to review the documents that now have been provided to the Senate." "Nor have they or the Senate yet had access to work papers from Judge Roberts's most substantive earlier post, in the Solicitor General's office," he said. Leahy on Tuesday issued a statement saying that Roberts had been "an eager and aggressive advocate" of far-right policies and that in his government jobs he had expressed "radical" views. (Full story) Other documents previously released showed Roberts supported the idea of allowing prayer in public schools, writing as a White House lawyer in 1985 that such efforts were "within the constitutional power of Congress." (Full story) 
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