President Reagan chose Douglas Howard Ginsburg, a conservative federal judge, as his new nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday, challenging the Senate to confirm his appointment quickly even though the choice may lead to a bruising new political fight.
Reagan introduced the 41-year-old former Justice Department official, a native of Chicago and a 1973 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, to a group of 300 congressional and business leaders, calling him ”eminently qualified” to sit on the nation`s highest court.
In his spirited, almost defiant announcement, Reagan described Ginsburg as a law-and-order judge concerned about the rights of crime victims and society.
The presentation of Ginsburg, both in the elegant setting in the historic East Room of the White House and in the description of him as ”a believer in judicial restraint,” was in sharp contrast to the simple, rather offhand introduction of Reagan`s first nominee, Judge Robert Bork, who was rejected by the Senate 58-42 last Friday.
The President`s announcement seemed to signal a full commitment to a conservative court, defying those who believed he should propose a more conciliatory nominee.
Ginsburg has been a judge for less than a year. If confirmed for the highest court, he would become the second-youngest justice in this century
(the late Justice William O. Douglas was 40 when he joined the court) and his tenure and influence could last well into the 21st Century.
Little is known about the former Harvard law professor`s views on such controversial social issues as abortion and civil rights. Most of his experience has been confined to antitrust and regulatory law.
Reagan criticized the lengthy examination period of Bork, saying it allowed time to gear up a political campaign against him. ”If this takes longer than three weeks to get going,” said Reagan, ”the American people will know what`s up.”
The nomination of Ginsburg came as a surprise to many in the administration and on Capitol Hill who expected a less controversial and more experienced judge to be selected after the angry, public fight over Bork. It consumed nearly four months with often acrimonious debate between Senate Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals.
To avoid a similar battle, Reagan had been expected to choose a candidate that all sides would consider more favorably. Such a candidate, federal appellate Judge Anthony Kennedy of California, was considered the front-runner right up to the time Reagan chose Ginsburg.
Kennedy, Ginsburg and Judge William Wilkins of South Carolina were interviewed for an hour each at the Justice Department Wednesday night.
The President had been given briefing papers on the three candidates Wednesday morning, but he did not make a final decision until shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday at the conclusion of a 20-minute meeting in the Oval Office with Chief of Staff Howard Baker and Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese.
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The choice of Ginsburg over Kennedy was widely viewed as a victory for Meese, the strongly conservative ideological force in the administration, over Baker, who is believed to have a more pragmatic, moderating influence on the President.
Ginsburg, a friend of Meese and Assistant Atty. Gen. William Reynolds, was waiting at home for a call from the White House Thursday. He received it shortly after 1 p.m., after which he was driven to the White House. There he met with Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee at 1:30 p.m and was formally offered the job by the President at 1:40 p.m.
Twenty minutes later, the tall, bearded Ginsburg stood beaming next to the President in the East Room, where he received two standing ovations and thanked the President for his ”confidence.”
Ginsburg told the audience that he ”looked forward to the confirmation process” and then scooped up his daughter, Hallee, and kissed his wife, also named Hallee.
Though the President called on the Senate to confirm Ginsburg quickly, there were indications that the decision may not come until next year.
Democratic liberals seemed to be preparing to portray Ginsburg as an inexperienced creation of Meese and a clone of Bork.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) called him ”an ideological clone of Judge Bork-a Judge Bork without a paper trail.”
Democratic Whip Alan Cranston (D., Calif.) also mentioned Ginsburg`s age, his ”limited” judicial experience and his ”qualified” approval rating-the lowest passing grade-from the American Bar Association.
Because little is known about Ginsburg, Cranston said, ”The committee should take its own sweet time.”
Arthur Kropp, executive director of the liberal People for the American Way, said: ”There are a number of conservatives Reagan could have chosen. He picked the most controversial. At first glance, it just makes your stomach turn.”
Ginsburg has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington since last November. He joined the Reagan administration in 1983, serving first as a deputy attorney general for regulatory affairs and then as an administrator of the Office of Management and Budget. He became assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division of the Justice Department in 1985.
Ginsburg is Jewish, but according to a spokesman, does not practice the religion. From 1916 until 1969, there had been a so-called ”Jewish seat” on the Supreme Court. The last to occupy it was Justice Abe Fortas, who resigned in 1969.
If confirmed, Ginsburg will take the seat vacated by Justice Lewis Powell, who announced his retirement, citing age and health problems, from the nation`s highest court on June 26.
John Buckley, a lawyer at Williams & Connolly in Washington and a Ginsburg friend since law school, called the nominee ”nonideological.
”He takes a very practical approach to cases,” Buckley said. ”He is economically conservative, and one would definitely have to put him in the Chicago school of economic analysis.” But, he said, ”I think it would be a mistake in Doug`s case to carry that over to social issues and say he is a social conservative.
”He`s not a person who`s dogmatic,” Buckley said. ”He`s moderate. There`s nothing in what he`s ever said or done that would suggest he has anything but an open mind. Really, he`s not a person with a lot of set views who is closed to argument. In that way, he`s like Justice Powell. He`s not ideological like Bob Bork.”
A personal friend of Ginsburg, who asked that his name not be used, said he was ”rather surprised” that the Reagan administration would have nominated Ginsburg in light of its views on abortion and other social issues. ”I don`t think anybody who is a friend is going to say that Doug is going to fulfill the social agenda of the Reagan administration. I don`t think anybody knows-even his friends-how he feels about abortion and privacy rights.”
”He`s just a delightful fellow and someone you can trust completely,”
said Judge Frank Easterbrook of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. ”There`s never an ulterior motive. What you see is what you get.”
He was Ginsburg`s law school classmate and is a longtime friend.
Easterbrook described Ginsburg as an ”open-minded intellectual. . . . He thinks that the way you resolve problems is not by figuring out where to go and then getting there but studying all positions, listening to all disagreements and then deciding where one should go.”
At Harvard Law School, Ginsburg was viewed by fellow faculty members as a ”traditionalist.” Professor Hal Scott, a friend of Ginsburg since they attended Chicago`s Latin School on the Near North Side, described the nominee as ”a very open-minded and flexible person.”
The difference between Ginsburg and Bork, Scott said, ”is that Doug comes at an issue without an overarching preconception of how the world works and what the result should be.”
”Ginsburg is very much a conciliator, a consensus builder, a diplomat,” said Geoffrey Miller, a University of Chicago law professor. ”In that respect, he contrasts with the personality of Bork, someone who liked to raise hackles. In that sense, I think Ginsburg may come across better in the confirmation process.”
That may become extremely important over the next several months because Ginsburg`s judgments and philosophy-and perhaps even his appearance-will come under intense scrutiny, as Bork`s did in his hearings.
This is the third seat on the Supreme Court that Reagan will have filled during his presidency. In 1981, he nominated Sandra Day O`Connor, an Arizona judge, to become the first woman justice.
Last year, after Chief Justice Warren Burger retired, Reagan chose Justice William Rehnquist to fill the chief justice position and picked another appeals court judge, Antonin Scalia, to complete the nine-member court.
Without Powell, the court began its new session this month with only eight members.
In his brief tenure on the appeals court, Ginsburg has produced a small body of decisions that defies a ready label. Most of the court`s cases deal with government regulatory issues.
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In July, for example, Ginsburg joined in a decision by Judge Abner Mikva, a former congressman who represented Chicago`s North Shore suburbs, that overturned the convictions of nine members of the Black Hebrews religious sect.
The ruling voided nearly 400 separate verdicts involving various charges of fraud and trafficking in stolen airline tickets, bogus credit cards and worthless checks. The third member of the panel, Bork, agreed.
Ginsburg lives in northwest Washington with his wife, Dr. Hallee Perkins Morgan, and their 2-year-old daughter. Morgan is a gynecologist but does not practice.
In a financial statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee last year Ginsburg listed a net worth of $710,657, most of it in real estate and holdings in a cable TV company.
Ginsburg has another daughter, Jessica Julianne DeSecundy, 17, by a previous marriage.
In various biographies, he has listed historic preservation and collecting antiques as hobbies.