Reagan Depicts Bork as Strong Crime Fighter

President Reagan conferred Friday with supporters of his nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, opening a campaign by law enforcement figures to pressure the Senate to approve the nomination.

“Judge Bork’s nomination is a crucial opportunity to continue our progress in the war against crime,” Reagan told the law enforcement officials.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the private session at the Century Plaza was the first of several meetings the President will hold with Bork allies in the effort to win Senate approval of his nomination.

But the new emphasis on Bork as a crime fighter focused attention on an area of the law in which he has had relatively little involvement. Although as solicitor general in the Richard M. Nixon Administration he argued before the Supreme Court in favor of the death penalty, as a member of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington he has taken part in few major criminal law decisions.

Uses Note Cards

Reading from note cards at the start of the meeting, Reagan told nine representatives of law enforcement organizations:

“It’s time we reassert the fundamental principle of the purpose of criminal justice is to find the truth, not to coddle criminals. The constitutional rights of the accused must be protected, but so must the rights of our law-abiding citizens.”

Bork, said Reagan, “has demonstrated a genuine concern for the right of our citizens to live in safe communities and a clear understanding of the problems facing today’s law enforcement professions.”

The Administration has previously sought to portray Bork as the proper mainstream successor to Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Fitzwater said that the Administration’s new tack to win Senate approval of the Bork nomination was focusing on Bork’s role in advancing a “tough but fair-minded application of criminal laws.”

Hits Tide of Opposition

Reagan’s nomination of Bork eight weeks ago to replace Powell has run into a tide of opposition, particularly from civil rights organizations and organized labor. Hearings on his nomination are scheduled to begin Sept. 15 in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Fitzwater said the White House has not added up the votes for or against Bork in what is expected to be a close contest. But, he said, “we remain optimistic.”

After Reagan met with the law enforcement officials, who included U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner of Los Angeles and Gov. James R. Thompson of Illinois, a former U.S. attorney, Thompson said the officials would form “a national group of law enforcement people to lobby on behalf of Judge Bork.”

“An unprecedented campaign of attack has come against Judge Bork which we think is unwarranted,” Thompson said.

Enforcement Representatives

The participants in the meeting included representatives of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs’ Assn. and the Fraternal Order of Police, among others.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles group of public interest lawyers held a news conference just before the meeting and said that Bork favored “law and order” to the “extent he likes the laws” he is being asked to uphold.

“The only law and order Mr. Bork favors is his own view of what the law ought to be,” said Frederic D. Woocher, an attorney on the staff of the Center for Law in the Public Interest.

“What we’re trying to demonstrate is that he places his own ideology above the laws of Congress,” he said.