Judge John Roberts, President George W. Bush's nominee to the US Supreme Court, on Wednesday won the enthusiastic backing of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), the big US trade group.
John Engler, the group's president, said Mr Roberts had demonstrated a deep understanding of business issues during his career as a lawyer in private practice, and a federal appeals court judge. The US Chamber of Commerce is also expected to endorse the judge before his nomination hearings begin early next month.
NAM judged the nominee on the basis of his ability to understand the impact of court decisions on the US business community, rather than his views on particular issues, a NAM adviser said.
US business needs a judge who understands the need to maintain the “predictability and stability of the law”, Mr Engler said. “Business depends on a legal system that is fair and predictable,” he said, adding that Mr Roberts could be expected to be “a justice who will interpret the law as written, not an activist who will legislate from the bench”.
Mr Engler said US business needed to be more actively involved in lobbying for the kind of judges who could rein in expansive interpretations of the law, and trim the cost of the US legal system that, he said, consumed 2.3 per cent of gross domestic product.
“Business can no longer afford to sit out Supreme Court confirmation debates and allow them to be cast only in terms of social issues,” he said, noting that the majority of cases before federal courts were business cases. Local NAM affiliates would be expected to lobby undecided senators to support the nomination, he said.
Mr Roberts frequently represented corporate interests during 13 years in private legal practice with the Washington law firm Hogan & Hartson. He represented or filed briefs on behalf of the US Chamber of Commerce, NAM and other corporate interests.
Mr Engler's announcement came as some interest groups are mobilising against the nominee. A conservative group in Virginia said it would oppose Mr Roberts because of his work helping overturn a Colorado referendum on gays.
Senator Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, yesterday defended the recent White House decision not to release documents from Mr Roberts' time in the office of the US solicitor-general, saying lawyers in that office would not be willing to give candid views “if they thought they would later be subject to public scrutiny”.
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