Reagan Could Seat Bork Temporarily, Dole Says

Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) pointedly reminded Democrats today that President Reagan could put Robert H. Bork on the Supreme Court temporarily if the Senate stalls in deciding whether to confirm Bork’s nomination.

The Constitution “allows the President to fill any vacancy on the Supreme Court while Congress is in recess and provides that the person filling that vacancy shall serve until the end of the congressional session,” Dole said.

Walt Riker, a spokesman for Dole, said what the senator has in mind is Reagan’s power to put Bork on the court--without the Senate’s approval--sometime in October.

The Senate is hoping to recess in early October and reconvene in January.

Dole said the Democrats, led by the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, have already delayed the start of confirmation hearings until Sept. 15.

The mid-September date for the hearings means that the Senate will not conclude action on the Bork nomination in time to fill the vacancy on the court before it begins its new term Oct. 5.

Dole, saying he wants to offer “Sen. Biden some food for thought,” said, “No Supreme Court nomination in the past 25 years has been met with the kind of stall being tried now.”

“I beseech Sen. Biden to rethink his timetable on the Bork nomination,” Dole added.

Reagan nominated Bork, a conservative federal appeals court judge, on July 1 to replace retired Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.

“Please, do not misunderstand me,” Dole said. “I think the recess appointment route is not the route that should be followed.”

But, he continued, “There simply is no substantive reason why the Judiciary Committee must wait until Sept. 15 to begin hearings on Judge Bork.”

Dole’s remarks were made to the National Conference of State Legislatures in Indianapolis and were provided to reporters here.