Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 16, 1994                   TAG: 9404180148
SECTION: NATIONAL/INT                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

SUPREME COURT COULD STILL GET POLITICIAN, THOUGH LEGAL SCHOLARS DON'T LIKE

Legal experts are divided over whether it's a good idea.

``It would be very useful to have someone who has a wide range of experience in the real world rather than someone who has spent a cloistered life as a judge, especially an appeals court judge,'' said John F. Banzhaf, a constitutional scholar and law professor at George Washington University.

Banzhaf said a politician of national stature could fit this description.

But Bruce Fein, constitutional lawyer and syndicated columnist, said there were drawbacks to Clinton's putting a politician on the court to replace retiring Justice Harry Blackmun.

``The statement that politicians, unlike sitting judges, bring a human element is nothing but nonsense on stilts,'' he said. ``Examining the court historically, it's impossible to make that case.''

Shortly after Hugo Black moved from the Senate to the Supreme Court, Fein recalled, he authored the notorious decision authorizing detention of Japanese Americans in World War II.

Even Banzhaf, who generally favors selection of a politician, voiced cautions.

Politicians are trained in the arts of compromise and deals, which can only go so far on the Supreme Court, he noted.

``A justice can't trade off votes on different cases - saying, 'I'll vote with you on this abortion case if you'll vote with me on that capital case,''' the law professor said. ``Yet that's exactly what politicians do all the time.''

Historically, the high court has often included justices who were former politicians. Earl Warren had served as governor of California. Black was a U.S. senator from Alabama. Harold Burton served as mayor of Cleveland and a U.S. senator from Ohio.

In recent decades, though, justices have mostly been elevated from lower federal courts. Except for Sandra Day O'Connor, a former member of the Arizona legislature, no current justice has held elective office.

Clinton reportedly has not abandoned his quest for a politician to put on the court.

``He still wants a political type. He's not ruling anybody out - certainly not the judges - but he really wants someone with a political background,'' a White House official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Among the possibilities: Education Secretary Richard Riley, former Democratic governor of South Carolina; Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a member of the Judiciary Committee; and House Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash., a former lawyer and prosecutor who grew up wanting to be a judge like his father.