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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 14, 1994                   TAG: 9405160154
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

CLINTON PICKS BREYER FOR COURT

Stephen Breyer, a federal appeals judge in Boston whose first-rate intellect and absence of ideology give him an unusually broad political appeal, was nominated Friday to the Supreme Court, a job he narrowly missed a year ago.

President Clinton named Breyer, 55, to succeed retiring Justice Harry Blackmun after weighing the relative merits of Breyer, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Arkansas federal appeals Judge Richard Arnold.

``I am flattered, and I am honored,'' Breyer told reporters in Boston after Clinton announced the nomination outside the White House. ``I believe very deeply in the Constitution ... and the lives that it touches among the people.''

In the end, Clinton said, he did not pick Babbitt because ``I couldn't bear to lose him from the Cabinet'' or Arnold because he has cancer and is undergoing radiation treatments.

But another factor in the president's decision may have been that, of the three finalists, Breyer would be the easiest to win Senate confirmation, as numerous senators have made clear in recent days.

In fact, confirmation will be ``a slam dunk,'' predicted Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican. Breyer is ``honest, compassionate, a man with a big heart and an excellent legal scholar,'' Hatch said, and other Republican senators agreed.

On the liberal side, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., called Breyer ``a brilliant legal scholar with a profound understanding of the law and its impact on the lives of real people.''

Clinton reached his decision at 4:15 Friday afternoon and, in an unusual break with the past, decided to announce it two hours later without his nominee. Traditionally, presidents disclose their Supreme Court choices with their appointees at their sides, but Clinton has been criticized this week for repeatedly delaying his announcement.

President Carter appointed Breyer to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston in 1980 on Kennedy's recommendation.

Clinton praised his nominee as a consensus-builder with political savvy who has been exposed to ``the full range of political issues'' and appeals to all parts of the political spectrum. ``I wish I had that kind of political skill,''Clinton remarked.

Breyer, who was informed of his appointment by telephone Friday afternoon, has strong liberal ties in his background. He was clerk to the late Justice Arthur Goldberg, lawyer for Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox and a former aide to Kennedy.

by CNB