Tribe Turns Down Opportunity To Testify at Confirmation Hearing

Laurence H. Tribe '62 declined several invitations to testify at Senate confirmation hearings for former Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft, which began yesterday.

Jeffrey Jamison, a litigation assistant to Tribe, said the Harvard Law School professor turned down a role in the hearings and is currently on vacation in Miami.

According to an Associated Press report published last week, Tribe was invited by Democratic Senate leaders to testify and perhaps help derail President-elect George W. Bush's controversial, conservative nominee for attorney general.

Tribe is the Tyler Professor of Constitutional Law. He spearheaded the Democratic legal battle in Florida during the tumultous aftermath of the presidential election.

An outspoken liberal, Tribe has called for strict Senate scrutiny of judical nominees, and he played a prominent role in defeating conservative jurist Robert H. Bork's bid to the Supreme Court during the Reagan administration.

--Staff writer Keith J. Lo can be reached at kjlo@fas.harvard.edu.