The New York Times reports that over the last few days, the White House has been making calls to religious right groups asking them to tone down their rhetoric on Alberto Gonzales' potential nomination to the court:
The White House and the Senate Republican leadership are pushing back against pressure from some of their conservative allies about the coming Supreme Court nomination, urging them to stop attacking Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales as a potential nominee and to tone down their talk of a culture war.In a series of conference calls on Tuesday and over the last several days, Republican Senate aides encouraged conservative groups to avoid emphasizing the searing cultural issues that social conservatives see at the heart of the court fight, subjects like abortion, public support for religion and same-sex marriage, participants said.
The article also speculates that no nominee may be named until the beginning of August.