For those interested in learning a bit about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' views on women's right to choose, The Washington Post's team of Amy Goldstein and Jo Becker make a decent stab at reading the tea leaves.

As a senior legal adviser to President Reagan, John G. Roberts Jr. concluded that a controversial memorial service for aborted fetuses, organized by a group of California doctors who opposed Roe v. Wade , was "an entirely appropriate means of calling attention to the abortion tragedy."

The words of the Supreme Court nominee, contained in a 1985 memo in which he approved a telegram from Reagan supporting the service, provide the clearest insight to date into Roberts's personal views on abortion at a time when both proponents and opponents of Roe have a keen interest in whether he would tip the court's balance on one of the nation's most volatile social issues.

Legal experts on the right and the left cautioned against interpreting Roberts's writing from that era as a certain predictor of how he would vote on abortion cases that might come before him today. Still, the memo, among 5,393 government documents released yesterday from the four years Roberts worked as associate White House counsel, is consistent with subtler clues to Roberts's stance on the landmark abortion case that have been emerging since his nomination by President Bush last month.

In 1981, while working at the Justice Department, Roberts had referred to the legal underpinnings of a woman's right to an abortion as the "so-called 'right to privacy.' " Later, as a deputy solicitor general in President George H.W. Bush's administration, Roberts would co-author an administration Supreme Court brief arguing that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overturned.

Does this mean Roe will really be down to 5-4?

[Update 10:10 PM Pacific]: Just the same, Mike Allen and Dana Milbank report for The Washington Post that Roberts' nomination is not likely to falter at this point.

Democrats have decided that unless there is an unexpected development in the weeks ahead, they will not launch a major fight to block the Supreme Court nomination of John G. Roberts Jr., according to legislators, Senate aides and party strategists.

In a series of interviews in recent days, more than a dozen Democratic senators and aides who are intimately involved in deliberations about strategy said that they see no evidence that most Democratic senators are prepared to expend political capital in what is widely seen as a futile effort to derail the nomination.

Although they expect to subject President Bush's nominee to tough questioning at confirmation hearings next month, members of the minority party said they do not plan to marshal any concerted campaign against Roberts because they have concluded that he is likely to get at least 70 votes -- enough to overrule parliamentary tactics such as a filibuster that could block the nominee.

"No one's planning all-out warfare," said a Senate Democratic aide closely involved in caucus strategy on Roberts. For now, the aide said, Democratic strategy is to make it clear Roberts was subject to fair scrutiny while avoiding a pointless conflagration that could backfire on the party. "We're going to come out of this looking dignified and will show we took the constitutional process seriously," the aide said.

"This was a smart political choice from the White House," said one prominent Democratic lawmaker, who like several others interviewed for this article requested anonymity because they were departing from the Democrats' public position. "I don't think people see a close vote here."