American Notes Judiciary

The questions dealt with prayer in public schools, the Equal Rights Amendment, the death penalty and school desegregation. Among the seven relating to abortion was one asking whether "a 'viable' fetus is a human being." The eight-page letter was sent by three conservative Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee--Jeremiah Denton of Alabama, Orrin Hatch of Utah and John East of North Carolina--to Joseph Rodriguez, a Democrat nominated by Reagan for a New Jersey federal judgeship.

Hatch described the letter as nothing out of the ordinary, but the outcry from others was sharp. Said Senator Howard Metzenbaum, an Ohio Democrat: "With some U.S. Senators, being a conservative is not enough. You must come up to their standard of being an extreme right-wing ideologue." Added Senator Joseph Biden Jr., a Delaware Democrat: "The notion of an ideological litmus test is repugnant." Even Judiciary Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, a conservative Republican, found the letter unacceptable. He announced that henceforth all members must confine their questioning of nominees to confirmation hearings.