Once More, Bench Battles

Remember Robert Bork? Four years ago, liberal legislators beat back Ronald Reagan's nomination of the controversial conservative scholar to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now ideological forces are marshaling for another judicial confirmation battle. The focus is Federal District Judge Kenneth L. Ryskamp, 58, nominated by President Bush to fill a vacancy on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Florida. The Miami jurist will face a rugged reception this week at Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, where opponents will try to block his confirmation on the ground that he is insensitive to civil rights.

The most visible issue is Ryskamp's longtime membership in the expensive Riviera Country Club in Coral Gables, which reputedly barred blacks and Jews until a bylaws change last summer prohibited religious and racial discrimination. Ryskamp's membership went unnoticed in 1986, when the Senate confirmed his judgeship for Florida's Southern District. Last week the devout Presbyterian elder resigned from the club, but foes were unappeased. "The federal appeals courts usually have the last word in civil rights cases," says Johnnie R. McMillian, president of the Miami-Dade N.A.A.C.P. "Elevation of Judge Ryskamp would reduce the President's promise of racial fairness to a cruel hoax." About 100 civil liberties, labor and Jewish organizations have written to the committee to echo that view.

The furor has as much to do with the nominee's prospective job as with his alleged insensitivity. The 12-member 11th Circuit, covering Florida, Georgia and Alabama, reversed Ryskamp rulings on civil-liberties issues eight times during his short judicial tenure. In Ryskamp's defense, Justice Department officials note that his civil rights record mirrors that of other federal judges. But that is largely a reflection of the fact that liberals are an "endangered species" on the federal bench, as Sheldon Goldman, a University of Massachusetts expert on the judiciary, puts it.

Bush has already won confirmation of 71 judicial appointments. Aided by a 1990 law that created 85 new seats on the federal bench, the President will be able to appoint about 200 jurists during his four-year term. That is expected to accelerate the shrinkage in the percentage of Democrats on the federal bench to about 25%. The Republican majority may include Ryskamp. Despite the opposition, many Senate insiders expect his nomination to pass muster this time around.