Major news organizations reported over the weekend that the White House is preparing for the retirement of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. These reports include quotes from radical right leaders that they expect Bush to nominate a candidate who falls outside the mainstream and shares the beliefs of their hard-line far right supporters.

Keenan said the President’s aides should be asked whether Bush will follow the path of "consensus over confrontation" established by his predecessors in both political parties. President Reagan's nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate justice, resulted from this process.

"The American people want to know if President Bush sees the vacancy on the Supreme Court as an opportunity to unite the country by consulting with the Senate for a consensus nominee. This is an essential question for the President who could put an individual in a lifetime position on a court that has a profound impact on the lives of ordinary Americans. The radical right is publicly calling on him to nominate a judicial activist who is hostile to the constitutional right to privacy and would overturn Roe v. Wade. If the President falls prey to the pressure from the radical right and abandons the route of ‘consultation and consensus,’ he will have created a divisive and contentious nomination process that he could have avoided."