When Schumer asked Roberts yesterday what kind of a justice he would be if confirmed, the nominee encouraged him to look at the opinions he had written over the past two years as a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

“I don’t think you can read those opinions and say that these are the opinions of an ideologue,” Roberts said.

PARTISAN POLITICS

Although Wednesday’s hearing proved contentious at times, most experts still agree that Roberts is likely to win confirmation, needing only a majority of votes from a Republican-controlled Senate.

A Senate-wide vote on Roberts’ confirmation is scheduled for next Thursday. Some Democrats on the committee said they had not decided how they would vote, and a few Republican senators attributed that behavior to partisan politics.

“This is a test of the Senate more than it is of Judge Roberts,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, R-S.C., said. “I hope the Democrats...give the same respect we gave to Justice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg”—a nominee of former president Bill Clinton—“who was, in my opinion, a very hard vote for a Republican.”

He asserted that the hearings appeared to have become a test of political allegiance rather than of judicial aptitude.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., phrased her remarks in a less confrontational manner than her colleagues.

“What has begun to concern me a little bit is Judge Roberts the legal automaton, as opposed to Judge Roberts the man,” she said. “But I do expect to know a little bit more about how you feel and how you think as a man.”

Several Republican committee members, including Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Az., offered their full endorsement for Roberts during the questioning on Wednesday.

“This, I think, is a great civics lesson,” Kyl said. “Some of this hearing should be encapsulated in law school courses to remind us about the difference between elected officials, who make policy, and judges, who are not supposed to make policy.”

During a break, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., called Roberts “the most qualified nominee who has ever been put up for a Supreme Court vacancy.”

SPARRING PARTNERS

In spite of the contentiousness of the hearings, the Democratic senators injected humor into their speeches on Wednesday. Saying the proceedings were “getting a little more absurd the further we move,” Schumer soon prompted laughs from an audience that had become acquainted with Roberts’ rhetorical patterns.

“It’s as if I asked you, ‘What kind of movies do you like? Tell me two or three good movies,’” the New York senator said. “And you say, ‘I like movies with good acting.’”