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Alito Hearings: The confirmation hearings on Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court were striking for their dissimilarity from last year's confirmation hearings for Chief Justice John Roberts. 1) Alito lacked the rhetorical polish of Roberts, but matched his intellectual rigor. His style was earthy and solid, well suited to his career as an appeals judge who has labored in the trenches for 15 years. His calm explanations of the law were dull at times, but for the most part, he was clear and he did not equivocate. 2) Alito went well beyond the minimum requirements of the so-called...

The American Bar Association—a liberal organization—conducted an extensive investigation of Judge Samuel Alito’s career as a lawyer and judge and unanimously gave him its highest rating of “well qualified” to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. The ABA interviewed 300 people, including 130 federal judges and numerous lawyers who had argued both winning and losing cases in Alito’s court. It also examined the purported controversies about Alito’s failure to recuse himself from a case involving the Vanguard company, which managed mutual funds he owned shares in (see Sen. Orrin Hatch’s piece on the cover), and his membership in the defunct...

Senate Democrats have scrapped a "good-faith" agreement they made two months ago to allow the Judiciary Committee to vote today on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. "This is a new low in our confirmation process," said Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican. "Not only because it is virtually unprecedented, but also because it reflects a breach of trust." According to Judiciary Committee rules, either party can stall a nomination in committee for only one week, meaning that Judge Alito's nomination will likely be approved by the panel during an executive committee meeting next Tuesday. The entire...

OPPOSITION Democrats have gained a one-week delay for a key Senate panel's vote on President George W. Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Alito. Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the panel's Republican chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, had agree to hold the vote on January 24 instead of today (local time). "I have assured Chairman Specter that no Democratic Senator will hold the matter over on January 24," Senator Leahy said. "He does not anticipate that any Republican Senator will seek to hold it over at that time." Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee...

Old blowhards don’t fade away, we learned again last week, they just serve as Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It was almost two decades ago that Sen. Joe Biden (D.-Del.) chaired the confirmation hearings that gave America a new verb: to Bork. When President Reagan nominated U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, it was Biden who led his Democratic committee colleagues Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Patrick Leahy of Vermont in what was then the unprecedented trashing of a nominee of unquestioned professional qualifications and unblemished character. In 1991, in a committee still chaired by...

Judge Samuel Alito’s appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week confirmed his integrity and character. Patiently and clearly answering senators’ questions of all kinds, hour after hour, he also proved his judicial temperament. Now, as their hopes of defeating this nomination diminish, Judge Alito’s opponents are left trying to hype fake issues. One of these attacks focuses on Judge Alito’s initial failure to recuse himself in the so-called Vanguard case. It is time to set the record straight. Preserving both justice and judicial independence requires that judges avoid conflicts of interest. To that end, federal law requires that a...

Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. is poised to join a tradition of pragmatic justices who have moved the Supreme Court to the right in measured steps. Eighteen hours of questions over four days showed President Bush's nominee to be a judge respectful of legal precedent but hardly starry-eyed. Judge Alito also displayed a strong inclination toward executive authority, a trait not surprising for a lifetime government employee and former Reagan Justice Department lawyer. By the design of Bush administration officials and despite Democratic efforts to smoke him out, almost nothing was learned in Senate confirmation hearings about Judge Alito's views...

The once-sluggish confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. turned confrontational yesterday, as the nominee signaled he might be willing to revisit the ruling that legalized abortion nationwide and Democrats pummeled him over his membership in an alumni group that wanted to restrict enrollment of women and minorities. Tempers flared openly between the Senate Judiciary Committee's Republican chairman and eldest Democrat, and the nominee's wife fled the marbled hearing room in tears before the day ended with Republicans predicting that Alito will win confirmation, although by a slim margin.

The inquisition may be over, but stalling tactics may be ahead. The long inquisition of Samuel Alito came to a close today. The man President Bush picked to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court faced a final day of relatively subdued questioning before being excused from the spotlight. After he was excused, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from a bevy of judges, lawyers and law professors who told them that Alito was as qualified to sit on the Supreme Court as any one of the justices who are already there. Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst at...

Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans on Thursday charged their Democratic colleagues with trying to smear Samuel Alito's reputation and character because they haven't been able to find anything legally wrong with confirming him to the Supreme Court. Democrats argue that their questions are appropriate and they should delve into all aspects of a nominee for the highest court of the land, including the reasoning behind some of the his actions. "I know the judge probably thinks he's doing nothing here but being on the hot seat but we're talking about a lifetime appointment," the committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of...

Edward M. Kennedy, the 73-year-old liberal lion of the Senate, did not so much roar as huff and puff Tuesday, as he faced Judge Samuel Alito. He and other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who had spent weeks preparing for Alito's Supreme Court confirmation hearing seemed to be shooting blanks at President Bush's nominee. Sen. Kennedy appeared to have lost his fastball in the 19 years since he eviscerated nominee Robert Bork. But Alito is a deceptively more difficult target. While Bork appeared a flamboyant scholar eager to expound his worldview, Alito came over as a cautious lawyer dealing...

It was during the second day of questioning that Sam Alito's wife broke down, wept and left the room after hearing Sen. Kennedy imply that her husband was a bigot. What was Kennedy's evidence? In 1985, Sam Alito belonged to Concerned Alumni of Princeton. He had joined to protest the ouster of ROTC from campus. Alito was neither an officer nor active, but like future Sen. Bill Bradley, he joined. What were CAP's sins? Headed by National Review publisher William Rusher, CAP had a magazine called Prospect that carried an essay opposing affirmative action and regretting that Princeton had ever...

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito so far hasn't earned the outcry from opponents who are hoping to put him on the hook the way failed nominee Robert Bork was in 1987, but neither has the candidate gained the support of any senators sitting on the fence. With no bombshells dropped through day two of the weeklong confirmation hearing, Democrats who voted against Chief Justice John Roberts in September appear equally dissatisfied with Alito, while Republicans so far seem ready to support the nominee. And after a full day Tuesday of dismantling his opponents' loudest arguments against him, in the end,...

Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) recently wrote a scathing commentary for the Washington Post. He took Judge Samuel Alito to task and actually suggested that the judge had serious credibility problems. Some might find this humorous, considering the long record Senator Kennedy has of recreating truth to suit his personal notion of history. For example, how many different versions of the Mary Jo Kopechne story have you heard? Even the senator couldn’t get it straight for years. At any rate, his verbal volleys at Judge Alito seem a bit hypocritical to me, even if I give the senator the benefit...

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on Tuesday defended some of his more controversial statements on abortion and vowed to uphold the Constitution when adjudicating matters of presidential authority, even in times of war. Already running behind schedule by midday, Alito tried to convince Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats that he will follow the rule of law as a Supreme Court justice and not inject personal conservative views into his opinions, particularly when it comes to hot-button topics. "I don't care what your position is on abortion, it's not about abortion. It's about your reasoning here," Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said during...

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.) just paid a visit to Bloggers' Row to reaffirm his commitment to making sure Samuel Alito's confirmation vote will happen by Jan. 20 -- the date agreed upon by Republicans and Democrats, which has been threatened by Democratic delay tactics. "That is the day that had generally been agreed to in conversations among Senators Leahy, Specter, Reid and myself," Frist said. "And it has been colored a little bit differently the last few days by Senators Kennedy, Schumer and others, all of whom have it within their power to make feeble attempts at delay...

The following is Sen. Tom Coburn's (R.-Okla.) opening statement at the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Judge Alito, welcome. I know you're tired of this and I'll try to be as brief as possible. One of the advantages of going last is to be able to hear what everybody else has said. And as I've listened today, we've talked about the unfortunate, the frail. The quotes have been "fair shake for those that are underprivileged." We've heard "values, strong, free and fair, progressive judiciary." We've heard "the vulnerable, the more vulnerable, the weak, those who suffer."...

Among Sen. Teddy Kennedy's many complaints about Samuel Alito, the one that caught the attention of Republicans today was his assertion that Alito is a racist. "In Alito's 15-years on the bench, Judge Alito has not written one single opinion on the merits in favor of a person of color who alleged race discrimination in the workplace." Moments later, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R.-Ala.) took Kennedy to task, leaving the liberal Massachusetts senator shaking his head. Sessions cited three cases in which Alito demonstrated that "all Americans receive equal protection of the laws, regardless of race." Among them: U.S. v. Kithcart:...

WASHINGTON — He's a Springsteen fan, history buff and marksman. He can whip up a salmon pate, but don't ask him to bake a cake. His marriage proposal began as an offer to take dancing lessons. These insights into Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito came from his wife, Martha, who confided in an interview that the man who has pondered weighty issues as a federal appeals judge for more than a decade has some interesting quirks. His music tastes tend toward Beethoven and Bruce Springsteen but "I force him to listen to Scarlatti and Bach," Mrs. Alito said in a...

In the first day of weeklong confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., told Judge Samuel Alito to expect tough questioning, saying the record of the U.S. Supreme Court nominee "troubles me deeply." Eighteen committee members gave their opening statements, followed by a statement by Alito. Questioning will begin tomorrow. Kennedy pointed to controversy over President Bush's decision to order the National Security Agency to wiretap conversations between terrorists overseas and citizens in the U.S. "In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture, and is spying on American citizens,...