Jeanne Cummings
July 6, 2005

Jeanne Cummings joined the Wall Street Journal Washington Bureau in 1997 as a political reporter. In 2000, she won the Aldo Beckman Memorial Award, the highest honor for daily White House correspondents, for her coverage of the Clinton Administration. (Read Jeanne Cummings's bio)

Q: When the president names his choice to serve on the Supreme Court, what types of interest groups will be ready to lobby the Senate for or against confirmation?

A wide array of groups will get involved. On the Republican side of the aisle, social conservatives who care about abortion and separation of church and state issues are activating their own members and organizing more than 20,000 churches to lobby senators. On the Democratic side, civil rights groups, environmentalists, labor unions and women's rights groups are all working together to thwart appointment of a justice they believe will be hostile to their interests. Some new players: Business groups are also mobilizing to support a judge sympathetic to their goals of reducing big jury awards and streamlining or loosening regulation of their industries.

Q: What approaches are the interest groups and parties likely to use and how have tactics changed since the last Supreme Court confirmation process in 1994?

The groups are gearing up to use any and all weapons. Radio and television advertising, circulating petitions, writing letters to senators, rallying outside the Senate are all traditional tactics that will be used in this fight, too. New since 1994 are Internet mobilization, web-based advertising and the 24-hour cable news shows that are upping demand for surrogate speakers on behalf or against a nominee.

Q: As the Senate waits for the president to announce the nominee, what are members of the judiciary committee doing behind the scenes? Are there ground rules being hammered out for how the confirmation hearings will be run? How might Senators apply the recent filibuster-prevention deal?

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter has already roughed out a schedule with Sen. Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the committee. Essentially, Mr. Specter sees about four weeks for conducting research on the nominee's personal background and legal opinions. He will set aside a few days for hearings. The committee is likely to act within ten days of those hearings. The nominee's next step would be to go to the Senate floor, where Democrats have threatened to block a final vote if they consider the nominee extreme.

That's where the bipartisan deal over judicial nominee filbusters could come into play. The seven Democrats involved in that compromise promised not to support a filibuster except in "extraordinary circumstances," but no one really knows what that term means. If Democrats do try to filibuster, several Republicans who joined that compromise have said they may support Majority Leader Bill Frist's call to abolish the minority's right to filibuster judicial nominees.

Q: What are some key cases on the Supreme Court docket for the fall and how might a new associate justice influence decisions on those cases? Are there any cases for which the absence or presence of an O'Connor-style moderate could make a real difference?

The court is expected to rule on an abortion parental notification law in its next term. The debate will focus on the circumstances in which a minor can bypass her parents and get a judge's approval to end a pregnancy. Justice O'Connor has been a central player on virtually all recent abortion rulings and so her replacement could become a significant player in that case.