WASHINGTON — Sounding more like an open-minded moderate than a strict conservative, Supreme Court nominee David H. Souter told senators Friday that he supports affirmative action to aid blacks and other minorities and that he has not made up his mind on the abortion issue.
The New Hampshire jurist also called it "appalling" that public schools once offered daily Christian prayers in a way that excluded Jewish children.
Souter's performance, which President Bush labeled "masterful," appeared to quiet most of his critics on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Several senators said they were surprised that Souter hardly sounded like the dyed-in-the-wool conservative they expected.
"Some of these answers sounded more liberal than Bill Brennan," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), a reference to Justice William J. Brennan Jr., the liberal justice Souter would replace. "But he's smart. He knows this stuff cold," Specter added.
Such comments were among the increasing indications that Souter is likely to overcome objections to his nomination. Democratic Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Judiciary Committee chairman, seemed to anticipate Souter's confirmation when he said that "there are a number of issues you're going to have to confront" as a member of the court.
For the second day of his confirmation hearings, Souter appeared in the same gray suit, to match his gray hair and grayish pallor. Again, he calmly offered detailed legal responses to the committee's questions. And again, he refused to state a personal or legal view on abortion.
He stumbled only once, near the end of the long day of testimony.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) pressed Souter to admit that he had been wrong, as New Hampshire attorney general in the 1970s, to resist federal moves to abolish a literacy test for voting and to defend the governor's order to lower flags on Good Friday to honor Jesus Christ.
With some reluctance, Souter conceded his loss in those cases was "the right result for the nation."
But Kennedy pressed further, wanting Souter to state that he believed the state literacy test should have been abolished. The senator, looking irritated, quoted from a Souter brief saying that allowing illiterates to vote would only "dilute" the votes of the literate.
"That's a mathematical statement," Souter replied.
