Justices hear claim of judicial bias in death-row case

Vets of '05 Senate truce don't see accord over court pick

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators who helped avert a meltdown over judges a decade ago say it's just too toxic to forge a bipartisan pact to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. With ideological control of the court at stake, senators are trading insults. Before President Barack Obama has chosen a nominee, nearly all the Senate's majority Republicans seem dug in against even meeting with that person. Democrats are adamant about trying to topple the blockade led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell or making the GOP suffer in the November's election. Seven Democratic and seven GOP senators banded together in 2005 to avoid a major clash over President George W. Bush's judicial picks. Some of them say the Senate is too polarized for that to succeed today.