Partisans Gear Up for High Court Fight Ahead
Activists Mobilize Over Bush's Vow to Nominate Conservative
By Michael A. Fletcher and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 13, 2005; Page A05
....The abortion rights group (NARAL) is among about 185 self-styled "progressive" organizations sharing information, ideas and resources in anticipation of a Supreme Court vacancy. Conservative groups also are in full campaign mode -- raising money, conducting polls and planning advertising campaigns to stir grass-roots support in anticipation of the looming fight over the next nominee to the nation's high court....
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When a new justice is appointed, "it will be a very big and very significant event," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative advocacy group founded by Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson. "Next to the election of the president himself, selection of a justice has a greater impact on the country than anything."
Sekulow said his group has been preparing for a court vacancy for the past several years by researching the records of potential candidates and sending e-mails and letters to its 730,000 members, "letting people know how the process works." That work has intensified in recent months as scores of conservative groups have joined forces to plan a campaign to support what they expect will be a conservative candidate for the high court.
The Judicial Confirmation Network, a new coalition headed by former Bush campaign official Gary Marx, has been raising millions of dollars that will be used for television ads to support conservative high court candidates. The group also has launched an online petition drive aimed at pressuring the Senate to change its rules allowing as few as 41 members to block confirmation of judicial nominees they find objectionable....
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The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and its liberal allies hold several meetings a week attended by as many as 50 representatives of organizations focused on environmental, labor and other issues. The coalition was created more than four years ago to combat Bush's appointment of John D. Ashcroft as attorney general, and it has stayed in business to battle judicial nominees whom the activists consider to be outside the political mainstream....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30281-2005Mar12.html 
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