G Harrold Carswell

Vice President Al Gore's father, Albert Gore Sr., who served in Congress for three decades and was a leading opponent of the Vietnam War and a key force behind the interstate highway system, died Saturday. He was 90. Gore died of natural causes at his home, a statement from the vice president's office said. The vice president and his wife, Tipper, were at his bedside. A leader among Democrats, Gore served in the Senate from 1953 to 1970.

President Reagan still has some way to go before he challenges the record for the most Supreme Court nominees rejected or withdrawn. That dubious honor belongs to President John Tyler, who had the opportunity to fill two Supreme Court vacancies during his term in office from 1841 to 1845. The Senate, however, killed five of his six nominations. Withdrawals of controversial nominations and Senate rejection of court candidates are not rare.

Early in 1988, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and leaders of the American Bar Assn. will meet to review the role played by the ABA in rating nominations for the federal judiciary. The meeting will be useful if it serves to clarify and improve the role played by the Bar. A 15-member committee of the Bar association has for about 40 years reviewed and rated nominees.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the nomination of William H. Rehnquist to be chief justice of the United States on a 13-5 vote Thursday, despite charges by some Democrats that a "cloud" hangs over the nominee. Democratic critics said that committee hearings showed Rehnquist to be less than honest about his past and insensitive to the rights of minorities and women.

The public battle over the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas intensified Tuesday, with two national advocacy groups voicing their opposition and a White House-backed women's organization declaring its support for the conservative black jurist. The announcements came as leaders of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People prepared to reveal its position today, and the AFL-CIO high command, meeting in Chicago, was expected to come out against Thomas.

More than a decade ago President Richard M. Nixon invoked executive privilege in a desperate effort to prevent a special prosecutor from exposing the conspiracy and cover-up of Watergate. The Supreme Court rejected that claim. It recognized the need for the courts and the special prosecutor to have access to information to fulfill their separate constitutional responsibilities. The attempt to hide behind executive privilege was blocked, and the Watergate cover-up was revealed.

Lawrence E. Walsh, a former federal judge, high Justice Department official and leader of the American Bar Assn., will be named independent counsel to investigate the Iran- contra arms deal that has rocked the Reagan Administration, a source familiar with the selection process said Saturday.

The first batch of papers from Richard M. Nixon's White House were made public by the National Archives on Monday and they reflected a chief executive and his aides often involved with trivial matters and highly conscious of the political implications of their actions. The 1.5 million documents that were opened to the public appeared to contain no substantial references to the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation in August, 1974.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, for the first time rejecting one of President Reagan's choices for the federal bench, Thursday voted down the nomination of Jefferson B. Sessions III to a district court in Alabama. The 39-year old Sessions, now a U.S. attorney in Mobile, Ala., became only the second judicial nominee to be turned down by the committee in 49 years. Sessions had come under heavy attack for past remarks that his critics said reflected insensitivity to racial minorities.

In the spring of 1992, Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, the author of the Roe vs. Wade opinion two decades earlier, found himself a bystander as the justices debated whether to overturn the right to abortion. The 83-year-old justice knew the abortion right was in danger, but he did not learn the story of its unexpected rescue until it was all over, according to papers of the late justice released Thursday by the Library of Congress.