Rights Coalition Reportedly Will Urge Souter Rejection : Judiciary: Key group is expected to mobilize its members against high court nominee. Kennedy evidently triggered the late-starting effort.

WASHINGTON —  The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a leading force in the defeat of Robert H. Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987, will ask the Senate to reject David H. Souter’s nomination as a justice, sources said Friday.

The conference’s executive committee agreed late Friday afternoon to mobilize its more than 180 members to campaign actively against President Bush’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, according to sources close to the conference, the largest coalition of civil rights organizations.

The conference is expected to issue a statement denouncing Souter’s fuzzy positions on civil rights and urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject his nomination.

Sources said also that the civil rights coalition apparently was moved by a series of phone calls on Friday morning from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). In a rare role reversal that placed him in the position of lobbyist to civil rights organizations, Kennedy asked civil rights leaders to mount a campaign against Souter similar to that which helped defeat the Bork nomination, sources said. One source called Kennedy’s actions something of a “crusade.”

Like most Judiciary Committee members, Kennedy has not officially said how he intends to vote on Souter’s nomination. When asked about the Leadership Conference campaign, a spokesman for Kennedy refused to comment. And the spokesman said that the senator has not made up his mind about whether to support Souter.

With Kennedy’s early and forceful opposition to Bork, the civil rights coalition successfully defeated then-President Ronald Reagan’s nominee. But, this time, organized opposition to the nominee was slower to develop. Souter’s legal writings on emotional issues such as abortion and civil rights are either non-existent or sketchy, in contrast to Bork’s outspoken opinions and writings.

Also unlike the Bork nomination, civil rights leaders have remained on the sidelines while the Souter nomination appears headed for confirmation. Their silence apparently prompted Kennedy, a steadfast champion of civil rights during his career, to solicit help from civil rights leaders in his late-starting effort to derail the nomination, sources said.

Although the most vocal opposition to Souter has come from women’s rights organizations that fear Souter would oppose abortion rights, many of Kennedy’s questions during the hearings concerned civil rights, rather than abortion. He showed visible displeasure with some of Souter’s answers.

One notable moment occurred when Souter offhandedly defended as “kind of a statement of math” his argument as attorney general of New Hampshire that allowing illiterates to vote “diluted” the votes of people who could read. At another point, Kennedy seemed upset by what he called Souter’s “hostile and frankly so heartless” court opinion that denied unemployment benefits to two elderly brothers in New Hampshire.

The coalition of civil rights groups will join with organizations such as the National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood in opposition to Souter. Women’s rights advocates, fearing Souter’s close ties to conservatives, were among the earliest groups to denounce the nomination.

Many observers--including some in the civil rights movement--believe that Souter’s confirmation cannot be stopped, but sources within various civil rights groups said that they felt obliged to speak out against him.

Even if it’s late in starting, their opposition will be heard, as one official put it, “because it’s important to do what’s right. If you only fought the battles you knew you could win, there would be few battles fought.”

Another civil rights leader said that the coalition intends to send a message by opposing the nominee. “This vote is against Souter, but it’s also for the future,” he said. “You can’t have a person with a shady past just appear before the (Judiciary) committee and say nice things, then expect to be nominated.”