Approaching the Bench

There is, in candor, nothing in the quality of the nominee's work to warrant any expectation whatever that he could serve with distinction on the Supreme Court.

That broadside attack last week on G. Harrold Carswell was delivered by Law Professor William Van Alstyne of Duke University. In testimony before the same Senate Judiciary Committee last year, Van Alstyne, a noted expert on the court, had delighted Southern Senators by supporting the confirmation of Clement Haynsworth.

Carswell, a Tallahassee aristocrat who was appointed by President Nixon from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, appeared unruffled by the criticism. The screening committee of the American Bar Association had unanimously certified the Court nominee "qualified" for the high bench.

The judge, however, was again obliged to repudiate a 1948 pro-segregation speech. Senators also questioned Carswell about being one of the incorporators of a Tallahassee golf club in 1956. Then a U.S. Attorney, he had invested $100 to help finance the conversion of a public golf course into a private club when public facilities were being forced to integrate. Carswell now denies any racial motives. In Tallahassee at the time, however, it was viewed as a segregationist effort.

Though the negative testimony mounted, the opposition, led by Indiana Democrat Birch Bayh, was not nearly as aggressive as during the Haynsworth hearings. Further, Carswell has had none of the financial entanglements that made Haynsworth a target.

At week's end, it seemed a safe bet that the President was right when he predicted at his press conference "that Judge Carswell will be approved by the Senate overwhelmingly."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.