EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Sessions: President Obama Wants Judges to 'Promote Agenda'

WASHINGTON, April 27, 2010— -- As President Obama considers his options for a Supreme Court vacancy, Senate Republicans are preparing to use the upcoming hearings to explore what they say is the expanded role of government under the Obama presidency, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee told ABC News.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said in an interview that Republicans are planning a sharp focus on the president's approach to governance -- regardless of who the president nominates -- to ensure that the newest member of the high court won't be a "rubber-stamp" for the Obama agenda.

"It's pretty clear to me that President Obama sees judges as allies in an effort to promote an agenda he thinks is best for the country," Sessions said. "And a lot of people see it that way -- he's just part of that movement.

"And that's not law. That's not law -- that's politics. And it's a poison in our legal system, and the American people are not happy about it. They see it for what it is, and they don't think that courts ought to be there to rubber-stamp President Obama's or anybody's agenda."

Sessions said Republicans on the Judiciary Committee will bring a particular scrutiny to the nominee's stance on such issues as the new health care law's requirement that individuals purchase insurance; government bailouts of private businesses; property rights issues; gun rights; and the president's criticism of the Citizens United ruling that opened the door to corporate campaign contributions.

"What I'm hearing from my constituents is a cry that Washington is losing all recognition that it is a government of limited, delegated powers, and that it is assuming roles that go far beyond anything the governed ever thought that they would be doing," Sessions said.

"You have the fundamental question: Is this what the framers [of the Constitution] had in mind when they created a limited government, and created a Commerce Clause?" he added.

While the specific response from Republicans will of course depend on the nominee and his or her record and writings, Sessions said he's not optimistic about what he presumes will be the nominee's approach on the most pressing issues of the day, given what the president has said publicly about his policies, plus the role of the courts.

"The nominee's entitled to be fairly treated, to be judged on their own record -- not on the president's speech or somebody else in Congress who may have said this or that," he said. "But some of these issues are pretty fundamental."