Bork Nomination Hearings to Start Sept. 15

Hearings by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Robert H. Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court will begin Sept. 15 and should end by Oct. 1, the panel’s chairman said Wednesday.

If everything goes according to schedule, the nomination could reach the Senate floor by Oct. 2, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said. He said the committee would first take up the nomination of William S. Sessions to be FBI director on Sept. 9, the day after the Senate returns from its monthlong vacation.

Republicans have complained that Biden has stalled in starting the hearings for Bork, a conservative federal appeals court judge nominated by President Reagan on July 1.

Under Biden’s schedule, committee members would make opening statements on the morning of Sept. 15 with Bork taking the witness table in the afternoon and, according to Biden, “remaining for as long as he wishes.”