To: AllPolitics
From: Candy Crowley/CNN
In: Washington
Posted: 2-18-97

Subject: Hatch Says Clinton Judicial Appointees "Liberal"

In a speech to be delivered in Salt Lake City, Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) says the majority of President Clinton's judicial appointees are "proving to be activists" to "impose a liberal policy agenda that (the President) has been unable to achieve and unwilling publicly to admit to."

Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has been accused by democrats of holding up judicial nominations in the senate for political reasons. In his speech, Hatch denies any political reluctance to approve the appointees, rather he says, it is his opposition to activism on the bench. Outlining a number of decisions he considers activist and wrong-headed Hatch said the incidents were not isolated, but "part of a consistent pattern of activism" by Clinton and Carter appointees. Hatch gave no indication he might speed up the process, in fact, quite the opposite. Determining which judges will turn out to be activist , Hatch says, "will require the Senate to be more diligent and extensive in its questioning..."

On another touchy subject, Hatch says the "time has come, once and for all, to decide what role, if any," the American Bar Association (ABA) should play in Senate's the judicial confirmation process. The ABA has been screening judicial nominees since 1947, but in the past decade the organization has come under fire for its political activism.

Hatch says ABA has evolved over the years into a political interest group with lobbyists and policy positions. The issue, he says is whether as a political group, ABA should "enjoy a special, quasi-constitutional role in evaluating judicial nominees."