Arlen Specter Chief Quotations

One of the things that I talked to her about was the complexity of a Supreme Court nomination hearing because there are a lot of complicated issues. And I said to her, 'You've got a pretty good road map in what went on with Chief Justice Roberts.

I would hope that the chief justice would work for consensus,

There is a little different approach in confirmation of the chief justice, ... I'm concerned about the conferences, about bringing the court together.

As the record shows, I have supported every one of President Bush's nominees in the Judiciary Committee and on the Senate floor. I have never and would never apply any litmus test on the abortion issue and, as the record shows, I have voted to confirm Chief Justice (William) Rehnquist, Justice (Sandra Day) O'Connor, and Justice (Anthony) Kennedy and led the fight to confirm Justice (Clarence) Thomas.

The word is that the justices very much applaud his nomination to be chief justice, ... He has the potential, almost from a running start, to bring a new day and a new era to the Supreme Court.

There have already been indications from members of the court about their liking the fact that Judge Roberts is going to be the new chief justice.

Your prospective stewardship of the court, which could last until 2040 or longer ... would present a very unique opportunity for a new chief justice to rebuild the image of the court away from what many believe it has become as a super-legislature and bring consensus to the court,

Your prospective stewardship of the court, which could last until the year 2040 or longer ... and would present a very unique opportunity for a new chief justice to rebuild the image of the court away from what many believe it has become as super legislature.

I'm concerned about the conferences of the justices which the chief will preside over, and about bringing the court together,

The new chief justice will have his work cut out.

The new chief justice will have his work cut out to try and bring consensus to the court, ... There is much to be done to move away from the 5-4 decisions of the court.

The next chief justice will have the potential to change the court's image in the eyes of many as a superlegislature and to bring consensus to the court which has made a hallmark of 5-4 decisions, many of which are inexplicable.

Chief Justice Rehnquist's death marks the passing of a great American,

Chief Justice Roberts has great potential for the future to bring a consensus to the court, to have a better recognition of congressional authority and, as he put it, to understand the Constitution responding to the changes in the ages and responding to societal conditions.

And then events overtook us with the passing of the chief justice,

the chief justice is not going to leave, because I think that every day he goes to work knowing he has very important work to do.

It's an opportunity to have a different approach of collegiality, ... I argued a case in the Supreme Court a few years back and Chief Justice Rehnquist ran a stopwatch, interrupted in mid-sentence. The word is he was looking for a way to interrupt somebody in the middle of the word 'if.'