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Missouri judge says he resents Ashcroft's accusations

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January 19, 2001 

WASHINGTON-- (AP) - Testifying at U.S. Attorney General-designee John Ashcroft's confirmation hearing, a black Missouri Supreme Court judge expressed anger Thursday that Ashcroft had blocked him from becoming a federal judge by persuading the Senate that he had a history of overturning death sentences.

"I deeply resent those baseless accusations," Ronnie White told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On the third day of hearings that seem likely to lead to Ashcroft's approval, White described his upbringing in a segregated St. Louis neighborhood, the child of poor, teen-age parents. He said he encountered white children who "would throw milk and food at us and tell us to go back to where we came from."

"This racism only strengthened my determination. I was not going to let the color of my skin or ignorance or the hatefulness of others hold me back," he said.

White said that as a judge, he had voted to uphold the death penalty in 41 of 59 death penalty cases he heard. He said that in 53 of those 59 cases, he voted with the majority of his colleagues on the court, and was the lone dissenter only three times.

"My record as a judge shows the personal attacks made on me were not true," White said.

Even so, the Senate rejected White's nomination by President Bill Clinton to be a federal judge in 1999 after opposition that was led by the conservative Ashcroft, who at the time was a Republican senator from Missouri. It was the first time in four decades that the Senate had defeated a federal district court judge's nomination.

While the Ashcroft hearing remained contentious, most other nominees in the incoming Bush administration had smooth sailing in their confirmation sessions.

Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell goes before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a second day and is likely to receive unanimous approval.

Other confirmation hearings involved Paul O'Neill, the Treasury secretary-designate, Ann Veneman, Agriculture; Spencer Abraham, Energy; Tommy Thompson, Health and Human Services; and Anthony J. Principi, Veterans Affairs.

But Gale Norton, the Interior-secetary, is expected to experience some of the same difficulties as Ashcroft because her nomination has stirred strong opposition from environmental groups.

After Wednesday's Ashcroft hearing Democrats said they were struggling with whether to believe his repeated pledge to enforce the law even when a statute conflicts with his deeply held beliefs.

For example, Ashcroft promised not to seek Supreme Court reversal of a woman's right to abortion and pledged to defend the constitutionality of gun controls he had opposed in the Senate.

"Quite frankly, I don't know what to believe," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat. "You have in fact been an implacable foe of a woman's right to choose for a quarter of a century."

Ashcroft, who as Missouri attorney general repeatedly sought to restrict abortion under the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, said he has no intention of trying to get the Supreme Court to reverse its ruling.