Washington ? Democrats gave no ground Wednesday on their demands for more of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ legal documents, saying the limited release by the White House could delay a vote to put him on the bench.

“The Senate will need the White House’s full cooperation to expedite the scheduling,” said Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who also said he would vote against Roberts if he found the nominee to have an “activist” agenda for the high court.

Republicans say the minority Democrats are stalling in hopes they can find something in Roberts’ documents that can be used against him in the confirmation hearings. The 50-year-old appellate judge is doing well in his face-to-face meetings with senators in the Capitol.

“They don’t have anything on him now, but they’re still digging and hoping,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

Democrats want some of Roberts’ legal paperwork from his time as principal deputy solicitor general in President George H.W. Bush’s administration in hopes it will give some insight into how the Supreme Court nominee thinks.

The White House says its Tuesday release of documents from Roberts’ time in the Reagan administration should be sufficient for the Senate to confirm him before the justices begin their new term October 3.

Republicans are pushing to start Roberts’ confirmation hearings Aug. 29, interrupting the Senate’s monthlong summer vacation, unless Democrats promise to allow a confirmation vote before the end of September. With that commitment, the GOP would agree to starting the hearings in early September.

“But absent that kind of commitment, it seems to me that duty will call on us to go ahead with August 29th,” said Senate Judiciary chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

Refusing to disclose all of Roberts’ documents while pushing Democrats to agree to a confirmation vote will cause problems, especially if the nominee plans to not answer all questions at the hearings, said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

“Something has to give. If the nominee does not want to answer questions, then we need more documents,” Schumer said. “If there is a moratorium on documents, then we need the nominee to answer questions more forthrightly and we need more time to ask those questions.”

The White House is invoking attorney-client privilege in withholding legal writings by Roberts when he was principal deputy solicitor general under the first President Bush. The administration has released thousands of documents dating from Roberts’ tenure as a special assistant in the Justice Department from 1981-82.