Panel Rejects Bork 9 to 5; Reagan Refuses to Give Up : Sen. Heflin Casts Vote With Foes

The Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee today sent Robert H. Bork’s Supreme Court nomination to the Senate floor with a recommendation that he be rejected.

The 9-5 vote came as President Reagan vowed anew to continue his fight for Bork’s nomination.

But chances for confirmation dimmed further when Sen. Howell Heflin of Alabama, a key conservative Democrat on the committee said, “I must vote no,” and a fifth Republican senator announced his opposition.

Heflin kept his decision to himself up until the committee debate just before the vote.

Heflin’s opposition was particularly troublesome for the White House, which had hoped for a favorable vote from the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court to sway other conservative Southern Democrats to Bork’s side.

‘We’re Pushing Ahead’

At the White House, presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said after the vote, “We’re disappointed but we’re pushing ahead.” However, he acknowledged, “it’s tough. There’s no doubt about it.”

Fitzwater said the White House would not alter its strategy. “I don’t see any kind of new campaign of any kind.”

Bork’s nomination lost further ground today when Vermont Republican Sen. Robert T. Stafford became the fifth GOP senator to declare his opposition. He said in a floor speech that “American people are looking for a uniting force, not one that stirs fears and apprehension.”

Still, Reagan said he will not drop Bork. “I am saying I am not going to withdraw this nomination,” the President said in reply to a reporter.

The Judiciary Committee roll call fell roughly along party lines, with GOP Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania joining eight Democrats in voting against the nomination. All five votes on the other side were cast by Republicans.

Full Senate Vote Soon

The vote came after the committee rejected, on an identical 9-5 roll call, a proposal to send the nomination to the floor with a recommendation that Bork be approved.

Committee chairman Joseph R. Biden (D-Del.) said after the meeting that the full Senate could vote on the confirmation as early as next week unless Reagan withdraws the nomination before then.

Biden said that it is up to Bork to decide whether to ask Reagan to withdraw the nomination--something Reagan has said he will not do--but that it also is Reagan’s right to seek a floor vote.

“I quite frankly don’t think there’s any reasonable prospect that Judge Bork will be confirmed,” Biden said.

Heflin said he had been in a quandary trying to decide whether Bork was a “conservative justice who would safeguard the living Constitution . . . or an extremist who would use his position on the court to advance a far-right judicial agenda.”

“I’m reminded of the old saying, ‘When in doubt, don’t,’ ” Heflin concluded. “I must vote no.”

‘Lobbying . . . Abominable’

In the opening moments of the nationally televised session, each side accused the other of playing politics with the nomination.

“The ads in this matter and some of the outside lobbying has been abominable,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who has been a staunch Bork supporter.

Retorted Senate Democratic Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), an opponent of the nomination: “The White House has politicized this nomination more than anyone else. . . . I would suggest that we lower the rhetoric because we all live in glass houses,” he said.

Senate Republican Whip Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming said, “The nation will be ill-served if the Senate rejects this remarkable man.”