Ted Kennedy eyes the court.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: John Roberts' selection to Supreme Court

On a steamy Thursday afternoon in July, just days before President Bush chose John Roberts for the Supreme Court, Senator Ted Kennedy gathered a group of journalists in his Capitol "hideaway" office to talk about the Democrats' developing strategy for dealing with the Court question.

The Senator has been through twenty previous Supreme Court nomination processes, and he wanted to put the current political moment in perspective. Kennedy's career spans the triumphs of liberal politics in shaping modern American consciousness. Robert Kennedy's famous portrait from his Appalachian poverty tour hangs in his office, as well as pictures of Martin Luther King and other civil rights marchers. In supporting Thurgood Marshall's nomination for the Supreme Court in 1967, Kennedy had a hand in shaping the liberal judicial legacy the Bush Administration is actively working to undo. So his perspective now, as a Democratic leader on the Judiciary Committee, and as savvy and active a politician as ever, is revealing.

"I don't think any vote we cast in the U.S. Senate is as important as the one we cast for the Supreme Court," Kennedy began. There was hope, he told the group, that the President would pick a "unifying candidate"--someone who could bring the country together. Conversations between the White House and Senate Democrats were going well. There were several names of potential candidates floating around who were serious, respected constitutional scholars, not rightwing political activists.

Maybe Kennedy was just staking out a good political position, or maybe there was real reason to hope.

Kennedy pledged not to "prejudge" any nominee based on a single issue or political background, but he emphasized the importance of knowing a Supreme Court candidate's judicial philosophy. Bush, he pointed out, has stated that it is important to examine any potential nominee's judicial philosophy, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist himself said of the Supreme Court justices, "We should not accept a blank slate."

Still, the nominating process has become a cat-and-mouse game, as nominees decline to answer questions, and the Administration chooses to withhold relevant documents.

"This Administration is going to know the positions of its nominees," Kennedy told us. "I don't want this to turn into a game of 'we know their views, but we're not going to tell you.'"

In fact, that is exactly what happened.

So far the White House, claiming attorney-client privilege, has...