Harkin says Americans with Disabilities Act key in new court justice

Senator Tom Harkin says he’s examining the record of the man President Bush nominated to the U-S Supreme Court to see if he might overturn the Americans with Disabilities Act, which Harkin authored. Harkin says many legal challenges to the A-D-A have been rebuffed by the court, by just a five-to-four ruling from the justices.”So with Justice O’Connors retirement from the court and the prospect of more retirements to come, this decision and others are at risk,” Harkin says. “Indeed, there are some jurists who believe Congress lacked the authority to enact (the Americans with Disabilities Act) in the first place. Well, I can assure you that more than 50 million Americans with disabilities refuse to go back to the days before ADA and I refuse to go backwards.” Harkin says he’s “carefully” reviewing the record of John G. Roberts, Junior, Bush’s nominee to the court.Harkin says he will have members of the Senate Judiciary Committee ask Roberts about the Americans with Disabilities Act. Harkin is not a member of the Judiciary Committee, the panel that will handle Roberts’ hearing, but he and the other 100 senators will have an up-or-down vote on whether Roberts should get a life-time appointment to the Supreme Court.