WASHINGTON — As a legal adviser to President Reagan, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts joined a scathing denunciation of family-planning-clinic bombers and urged Reagan to stay out of an effort to post tributes to God in Kentucky schools.

Roberts' advice — in documents Knight Ridder obtained before their scheduled public release later this month — might help him counter critics who portray him as a doctrinaire conservative. Abortion-rights groups and organizations that advocate a clear separation between church and state oppose his nomination.

Both sides in the nomination debate are scouring court briefs, legal memos and other documents for anything that can help make the case for or against Roberts' ascension to the nation's highest court.

In the family-planning-clinic case, Roberts was asked to respond to reports in 1986 that Reagan would consider granting presidential pardons to convicted bombers. The issue arose when leaders from two anti-abortion groups, the American Life League and the Pro-Life Action League, were quoted as saying Reagan was open to the possibility of pardons on a case-by-case basis.

Rep. Romano Mazzoli, D-Ky., asked Reagan for an explanation. Roberts and his boss, deputy White House counsel Richard Hauser, suggested a strongly worded response that ruled out favors for clinic bombers.

"The president unequivocally condemns such acts of violence and believes that those responsible should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," their draft reply said. "No matter how lofty or sincerely held the goal, those who resort to violence to achieve it are criminals. ... Neither the cause that these misguided individuals mistakenly believed they were serving, nor the target of their violence, will in any way be considered to mitigate the seriousness of their offense against our laws."

Roberts' opinion of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, is one of the most hotly debated issues in his confirmation.

As a deputy solicitor general in the administration of the first President Bush, he joined a brief asserting that Roe "was wrongly decided and should be overruled." He distanced himself from that opinion during his 2003 confirmation hearings to a federal appellate court and declared Roe "the settled law of the land."

In the Kentucky school case, Roberts advised Reagan to stay out of a 1985 effort to require teachers to post the national motto — "In God We Trust" — and the preamble to the state constitution in their classrooms. The preamble declares, "We, the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, are grateful to Almighty God for the civil, religious and political liberties we enjoy."

Roberts questioned the constitutionality of the proposal and concluded "it would be inappropriate" for Reagan to endorse it.

is taken to hospital

Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is fighting thyroid cancer, developed a fever yesterday and was taken to a Virginia hospital "for evaluation," a Supreme Court spokesman said.

He was allowed to go home after tests at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, spokesman Ed Turner said.

It was the second time this summer that Rehnquist, 80, has gone to the hospital complaining of a fever.

Los Angeles Times