Obama: Court pick should back women’s rights

April 22, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama, treading carefully in the explosive arena of abortion and the Supreme Court, said Wednesday he will choose a nominee who pays heed to the rights of women and the privacy of their bodies. Yet he said he won’t enforce any abortion-rights “litmus tests.”

Obama said it is “very important to me” that his court choice take women’s rights into account in interpreting the Constitution, his most expansive comments yet about how a woman’s right to choose will factor into his decision.

He plans to choose someone to succeed Justice John Paul Stevens within “the next couple weeks,” he told CNBC.

Obama accelerated his political outreach and his conversations with candidates, positioning himself for one of the most- consequential decisions of his presidency. He invited Senate leaders — Republicans as well as Democrats — to discuss the issue at the White House and commented briefly to reporters before their private meeting.

His rejection of the idea of “litmus tests” was standard presidential language, keeping him from being boxed in and protecting his eventual nominee from charges of bringing preconceived decisions to the bench.

Obama’s pick is not expected to change the ideological balance on the court, though Stevens, the leader of the court’s liberals, has played a major role in the court’s upholding of abortion rights. Stevens, who turned 90 on Tuesday, is retiring this summer.