Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans in transition with high-court hearings on horizon

Senate Republicans in flux for high-court hearings

WASHINGTON — The likelihood of contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearings comes at a time of transition for Senate Republicans.

Sen. Arlen Specter has been the party’s senior member on the Judiciary Committee, which will conduct hearings on President Barack Obama’s nominee for the high court. But the Pennsylvania lawmaker’s party switch earlier in the week has created something of a quiet scramble for the top Republican committee post, which comes with the authority to hire a large staff and can often command widespread media attention.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama appears likely to succeed Specter — 24 years after his own nomination as a federal judge was killed in the same committee.

But in the Senate, successions are sometimes complicated.

Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah is the Republican on the committee who has been in the Senate the longest, but he has exhausted term limits for the committee post, according to the party’s Senate rules. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is next in seniority, but he holds the top GOP post on the Finance Committee and is deeply involved in health care legislation. Jon Kyl of Arizona is third in line, but as the party’s second-ranking leader in the Senate, he is barred from taking the Judiciary Committee post.

Sessions is behind Kyl in seniority, and therefore next in line.

But Republican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say Grassley has been trying to work out an arrangement in which Sessions would hold the post only until after the 2010 elections.

At that point, the Iowan hopes to take the position, and set off a chain reaction in which Sessions would lose one post but qualify as senior Republican on the Budget Committee.

No decisions are expected until next week.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont is chairman of the committee.