Romney law team likely to hit conservative chord

Romney’s message in assembling his 63-member Justice Advisory Committee is a clear signal to conservatives, said Jeff Berry, a political scientist at Tufts University. “The judiciary would be in safe hands.’ ’’

The cochairs pledged in a joint statement that Romney “will nominate judges who faithfully adhere to the Constitution’s text, structure, and history and he will carry out the duties of president as a zealous defender of the Constitution,’’ which is the kind of language favored by conservative activists who complain that liberal judges are chipping away at the original intentions of the Founding Fathers.

Other prominent conservatives on Romney’s list include Steven Bradbury, who headed the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department under Bush and defended the administration’s use of waterboarding on detainees in US custody; Michael Chertoff, who was Bush’s secretary of homeland security; Jay Stephens, who served as associate attorney general for Bush; H. Christopher Bartolomucci, a White House associate counsel from 2001 to 2003; and Bradford Berenson, another former Bush White House lawyer.

Romney had a similar committee of legal advisers when he ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, but the current group is larger and higher-profile.

A notable omission from this year’s list is Pepperdine University law professor Douglas Kmiec, who cochaired Romney’s judicial advisory panel during his last run for president. Kmiec, a Republican, crossed party lines and endorsed Democrat Barack Obama in the general election in 2008 and then served as President Obama’s ambassador to Malta.

Romney’s advisory committee ostensibly will provide advice on “the Constitution, judicial matters, law enforcement, homeland security, and regulatory issues’’ and might offer some legal advice, according to a statement from the campaign.