Administration Outlines Bork Arguments for Senators

The Reagan Administration on Monday sent senators a detailed “policy statement” in support of the controversial Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork, providing an outline of the main arguments that Administration officials intend to use in trying to win Bork’s confirmation.

The policy statement--rare for a judicial nomination and unusual at such an early stage in any legislative battle--also underlines how seriously the White House is taking the Bork fight.

The nomination is under fire from many liberal groups that fear that Bork, a conservative, would swing the court toward reversing key decisions on civil rights, abortion and church-state separation if he is confirmed to replace the moderate Lewis F. Powell Jr., who retired in June.

As the policy paper shows, the Administration will focus on Bork’s personal qualifications and try to steer debate away from the “social agenda” that Bork’s opponents will emphasize.

“Ideology should have no role in the Senate’s decision,” the White House paper said.

The strategy also calls for a continued attempt to change Bork’s image and portray him as more moderate than his critics charge.

“Judge Bork is a mainstream jurist” and “not a political judge,” the statement said, noting that Bork has differed with some conservatives in the past and recently was praised by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, a moderate Republican.

The statement noted that Bork opposes the high court’s Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortions but that he “has never indicated whether he would vote to overrule” it.

On civil rights, the statement emphasizes that Bork has recanted some of the more controversial positions that he took earlier in his career and that he made arguments favored by civil rights groups when he handled the government’s high-court cases as solicitor general in the Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford administrations.

The statement does not note that in at least some of those cases, Bork personally opposed the position backed by civil rights groups but was overruled by his Justice Department superiors.