Bork’s Friends, Foes Seek to Sway Southern Senators

As Congress leaves town today for its August recess, the campaigns for and against the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork head south.

Both supporters and opponents of the controversial nomination assume that Bork’s fate is in the hands of a small group of senators, mostly moderate-to-conservative Southern Democrats, who will determine whether there is a majority vote to confirm him.

While those senators are home for the month, both sides plan extensive efforts to bring constituent pressure to bear on them. For example, People for the American Way, a liberal activist group founded by Norman Lear, has begun a media campaign to spread its message that the Senate should take a “close look” at Bork when hearings on the nomination begin Sept. 15.

On the other side, the Rev. Jerry Falwell has mailed letters to his Moral Majority followers warning them that the Bork nomination may be “our last chance” to “set the tone of the court . . . perhaps into the next century.”

For both sides, the task is a dicey one.

Democratic opponents of Bork, aware of their party’s sensitivity about appearing captive to “special interests,” want to be “effective” in making their case “but not too pressured,” said Susan Liss of People for the American Way. “It’s obviously a delicate balance.”

Bork’s backers have a similar balance to maintain: arousing grass-roots conservative support for the nominee without bolstering the opposition’s contention that he is an extremist who would swing the court sharply to the right.

The competing strategies, activists say, will come into play primarily in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Alabama, where some of the uncommitted lawmakers who may represent the crucial margin reside.

“There will be an effort in all 50 states,” said one leading anti-Bork strategist. “But the states with two undecided senators obviously are at the top of the priority list.”

Groups opposing Bork have made thousands of calls to members and local organizations, asking people to contact their senators and press two arguments: first, that the Senate has a right to judge Bork on his philosophy and ideology, not just his judicial credentials; and second, that the nominee is an “extreme conservative,” particularly in the area of civil rights.

Civil Rights Issues

Although opponents have raised a broad range of objections to Bork, his consistent stands against civil rights measures in the past appear to be the one drawing the greatest response.

Earlier this week, for example, Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), a relatively conservative member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will conduct the confirmation hearings, said, “I may not be able to vote for him,” if Bork cannot provide a convincing explanation for opinions in which he has found few constitutional protections for civil rights.

DeConcini complained also that some Republican senators “would vote for Mickey Mouse or Darth Vader if President Reagan sent them up.”

Administration officials have been working energetically to counter the charges of extremism by trying to portray Bork as virtually a moderate. That strategy carries some risks, and some Bork opponents believe it will fail. But, so far, it appears to have gained some ground in the Senate, helped by Bork’s own discussions with senators.

Friends a Problem

“He’s our best weapon,” said one source close to Bork, discussing the judge’s ability to charm those he meets and impress them as an open-minded man. As for Bork’s worst problem, another source familiar with the nominee’s thinking said simply: “Our friends.”

On abortion, for example, the Reagan Administration earlier this week sent senators a pro-Bork briefing statement which stressed that “Judge Bork has never indicated whether he would vote to overrule Roe vs. Wade,” the Supreme Court case that wiped out state anti-abortion laws.

At the same time, anti-abortion groups, repeating Bork’s earlier public criticism of the Roe decision, have been telling their members that getting Bork confirmed is their best opportunity to end legal abortions.

Church and state relations is another prime issue. Bork strategists have been trying to distance the nomination from the Administration’s more controversial positions on school prayer and similar matters.

But the outspoken support for Bork by Falwell and the National Assn. of Evangelicals, both aggressive school prayer advocates, is a red flag to dissenting groups that otherwise might be swayed to support the nominee.

Church Opposition

Some Jewish groups and liberal Protestant denominations already have announced opposition to Bork because of those concerns. Bork’s supporters fear that additional denominations may join the list and begin encouraging their members to contact members of the Senate.

Bork’s position on the school prayer issue is disputed. Bork denies having ever taken a position, but others insist that he gave speeches, including one at New York University in 1982, in which he allegedly criticized the 1962 Supreme Court decision that struck down state school prayer laws.

“My recollection is clear” that Bork “was highly critical of the Supreme Court in three areas--abortion, the school prayer cases and busing,” said NYU Law School Dean Norman Redlich, who wrote Bork a letter two days after the speech challenging the judge’s criticism of the school prayer rulings. Redlich has sent a copy of the letter to Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.), who opposes the Bork nomination.

Fight Over Credibility

Those conflicts complicate the task of mobilizing support for Bork. And they pose the danger that the nomination could be caught up in a fight over the Administration’s credibility.

Opponents of the nomination already have begun raising that issue, sensing that, in the effort to paint Bork as a moderate, the White House may have gone too far and opened a new area of vulnerability. Senators who might not want to vote against the nomination on ideological grounds could oppose Bork if he, or the Administration, appears to be disingenuous, the opponents hope.

Each of these thrusts and parries, and possibly others, will be stirring the air of the South in August.

“I haven’t made up my mind” on Bork, Sen. Wyche Fowler Jr. (D-Ga.) said in an interview. “But I’m sure I’ll be hearing about it.”