Civil Rights Groups Support Roberts

With the approach of confirmation hearings for Judge John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court, representatives from a handful of advocacy organizations yesterday announced support for him and criticized groups on the left who claim to speak for minority groups. At a news conference at the National Press Club, speakers from the Congress of Racial Equality, the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, Project 21, the Center for New Black Leadership, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said liberal advocacy groups who came out against Judge Roberts' nomination this week did not speak for all blacks and Hispanics. "We are not a monolith. We come from many different religious backgrounds and different socioeconomic backgrounds," said Jennifer Braceras, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Niger Innis, a spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality who led the coalition of organizations and individuals, said he was speaking on behalf of black voices not often heard on issues such as school vouchers, education, making government money available to faith-based organizations and making sure there is no discrimination against faith-based organizations. Ms. Braceras dismissed recent comments by Ralph Neas of People for the American Way that Judge Roberts would try to turn back the clock on civil rights as a boilerplate radical agenda attack that special interest groups would make on any of President Bush's nominees.