Alito Hearings Postponed Until Next Year

[visionary]

Alito nomination hearings to begin in January

Bush had hoped Senate vote on court nominee would be before year’s end

The Associated Press

Updated: 5:54 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2005

WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled Senate will begin hearings Jan. 9 on Judge Samuel Alito’s appointment to the Supreme Court, spurning President Bush’s call for a final confirmation vote before year’s end.

“It simply wasn’t possible to accommodate the schedule that the White House wanted,” Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said late Thursday. He outlined a schedule that envisions five days of hearings, followed by a vote in committee on Jan. 17 and the full Senate on Jan. 20.

Bush nominated Alito on Monday to fill the seat of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who has often held the swing vote on cases involving controversial issues such as abortion and affirmative action.

Conservatives eager to replace O’Connor and push the court to the right have swung behind Alito’s nomination, and in making the appointment the president urged the Senate to vote this year.

Democrats pleased with date

Democrats, citing a need to review the voluminous record that Alito has compiled in 15 years as a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, favor waiting until the new year for the beginning of hearings. The 55-year-old judge has written an estimated 300 rulings and participated in roughly 1,500 cases.

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who joined Specter at a news conference, took several slaps at the White House pressure.

“We are grownups, and we know how to get this done,” said Leahy, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. While not meeting Bush’s timetable, he added, “We will be going at a very fast pace.”

Separately, the National Archives issued a statement during the day saying its staff would need several weeks to complete a search of Department of Justice records for any material pertaining to Alito. The agency also is seeking documents at the Ronald Reagan and George Bush presidential libraries that might shed light on Alito’s actions or views, the statement said.

Alito worked in both administrations and was a federal prosecutor in his home state of New Jersey before his confirmation as an appeals court judge.

Courtesy calls with senators

Since Monday, Alito has met with more than a dozen senators in courtesy calls, a time-honored process that involves having the nominee walk from one office to another.

This was a day with a difference, though. With lawmakers involved in a daylong series of votes that kept them in the Capitol, Alito was ushered into a room a few paces off the Senate floor so senators — Cornyn, Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Robert Bennett, R-Utah — could be brought to him.

A fourth Republican, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, talked with Alito on the steps outside the Capitol. A supporter of abortion rights, Chafee said he raised the issue with the nominee in their brief meeting. “We were able to have a candid conversation that I prefer to keep confidential,” he said.

Like other senators, Chafee said he was withholding his judgment about the nomination until after the hearings. But he expressed his feelings in a distinctive way. “As a horseman, I know the first step when you meet a horse is to take it easy, take it slow,” he said.

Specter was caught between conflicting pressures as he sought to work out a schedule on the nomination. While the president made his wishes clear, Democrat Leahy of Vermont said earlier this week it was not possible to hold honest or fair hearings before the new year.

Republicans have the ability to schedule hearings as they wish, but Democrats have procedural rights under Senate rules that could prolong the hearings, delay sending the nomination to the floor or otherwise complicate the administration’s desire for a smooth confirmation.

Potential political success for the new year

Additionally, some Republicans noted that a vote in January — before Bush’s State of the Union address — could allow him to claim an early political success in the new year. They also said it could be politically risky to have Alito testify in December, then allow several weeks to elapse before a vote by the full Senate. That would allow liberal critics to mount a nationwide campaign for his rejection.

A bipartisan group of 14 lawmakers met privately to discuss the appointment. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., told reporters there was a “sense that we’re still together and keeping this a civil and orderly process at this point.”

The group brokered a last-minute compromise last spring that prevented a Senate showdown over several of Bush’s conservative appeals court nominees and a Republican threat to ban filibusters in cases of judicial appointments.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9916021/

[visionary]

Centrist senators meet over Alito nomination

‘Gang of 14’ has been instrumental in blocking use of filibuster

The Associated Press

Updated: 12:11 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2005

WASHINGTON - A group of centists who averted Senate gridlock earlier this year over President Bush’s judicial selections struggled Thursday to find consensus on any “extraordinary circumstances” exist that would merit a Democratic filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Two Republican members of the so-called “Group of 14” already had said that they do not consider any questions about Alito’s elevation from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to be serious enough to fit the kind of scenario the group has said would warrant such delaying tactics.

After the group’s first meeting on Alito, Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., told reporters there was “a sense that we’re still together and keeping this a civil and orderly process at this point.”

He said the Gang of 14 “is not going to blow up.”

The unity of the group’s seven Republicans and seven Democrats halted a politically charged showdown earlier this year over Bush’s conservative lower court judgeship choices.

But two senators — Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and Mike DeWine, R-Ohio — already have said they will join with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to eliminate the filibuster for judges if Democrats launch this delaying tactic simply because of Alito’s conservative record.

The White House nominated Alito as a replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, an important swing vote on issues like abortion and affirmative action. Alito is Bush’s second pick for the O’Connor seat, following the failure of White House counsel Harriet Miers to garner support from conservatives who were worried about her judicial philosophy and lack of experience as a judge.

‘A lot to talk about'

Other senators in the group, which decided earlier in the year to support filibusters only in such dire circumstances, said they argued that it is too early to make a decision this time around, given that Alito is only in his first week as the nominee.

“Everybody thinks it is too early to decide whether there are ‘extraordinary circumstances,”’ said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn. “There’s a lot to read ... a lot to talk about.”

Alito, 55, has served for 15 years on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Philadelphia after being a government lawyer and U.S. attorney, and has a clear conservative paper trail on the bench.

But some people are looking at a young Alito to try to find indicators of how he’d vote on certain issues.

For example, Alito joined the Army reserves while he was a college student because his draft lottery number made it likely he would be taken for the Vietnam War, his college roommates said.

Also, 30 years before the Supreme Court decriminalized gay sex, Alito declared on behalf of his group of fellow Princeton University students that “no private sexual act between consenting adults should be forbidden.”

Alito, back in 1971, also called for an end to discrimination against homosexuals in hiring.

“If these are his views today — and there is no indication they are not — it’s a hopeful sign that may provide some insight into his philosophy,” said David Smith, the policy vice president of the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates gay rights.

Democrats and filibuster

After a flurry of filibuster talk immediately following Alito’s nomination, Senate Democrats now are taking a wait-and-see stance.

“I don’t know a single Democrat who is saying that it’s time for a filibuster, that we should really consider it,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, said after meeting with Alito on Wednesday. “It’s way too early.”

Nelson said Alito had assured him “that he wants to go to the bench without a political agenda, that he is not bringing a hammer and chisel to hammer away and chisel away on existing law.”

Durbin said the judge told him he saw a right to privacy in the Constitution, one of the building blocks of the court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision.

Alito said that when it came to his dissent on Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case in which the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses, that “he spent more time worrying over it and working on that dissent than any he had written as a judge,” Durbin recounted.

Republicans say what they know about him shows that he’s qualified to sit on the high court. The Senate’s No. 2 Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, called Alito a “very, very impressive intellect and a very well qualified nominee.” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas added, “Unless something very different comes out that we don’t know about, I certainly would intend to support him.”

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9911391/

[visionary]

Democratic senator lauds Bush’s court nominee

Sen. Ben Nelson says Alito doesn’t want to ‘chisel away’ existing law

The Associated Press

Updated: 1:03 p.m. ET Nov. 2, 2005

WASHINGTON - A centrist Democratic senator complimented Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Wednesday as a moderate jurist who won't "hammer away and chisel away" existing law.

While Sen. Ben Nelson did not endorse President Bush's latest nominee for the high court, he did say he was impressed by what he heard from Alito during his introductory visit.

The Nebraska Democrat, who was Alito's first senatorial host Wednesday, told reporters that he got assurances that Alito would not be "judicial activist" or "take an agenda to the bench" if confirmed to succeed Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is retiring.

"He assured me that he wants to go to the bench without a political agenda," said Nelson, one of the founding members of the centrist "Gang of 14" senators who earlier this year worked out a compact aimed at avoiding judicial filibusters except in the direst of circumstances.

Some liberals, pointing to Alito's rulings as a federal appellate court judge on abortion, gun control, the death penalty and other issues have already raised the threat of a filibuster _ an attempt to deny the 55-year-old lawyer a yes-or-no vote by the full Senate. Republicans hold 55 seats in the Senate, and while confirmation requires a simple majority, it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster.

Nelson, one of the 14 centrist senators that Democrats would need to sustain a filibuster, said that Alito "wants to decide each case as it comes before him."

Without the group's seven Republicans, Democrats would not be able to prevent Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., from abolishing judicial filibusters and confirming judges with a simple majority vote.

The Group of 14 is to meet Thursday to talk about Alito, who picked up an endorsement Wednesday from Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

"I look forward to enthusiastically supporting his nomination," said Hagel, one of several senators that Alito was scheduled to meet with during the day.

Democrats have been worried about how Alito would rule as the replacement for O'Connor, who has been a swing vote on such issues as abortion and affirmative action. He was nominated to replace White House counsel Harriet Miers, who withdrew last week after conservatives and anti-abortion groups refused to support her nomination and questioned whether she was qualified.

Republicans have said that Alito is more than qualified, pointing to his 15 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit and his work as a government lawyer and prosecutor.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© 2005 MSNBC.com

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9898557/

[chomerics]

I think it is a good decision. He could be on the SCOTUS for 40 years if he is confirmed, so it is a decision the dems will not take lightly. They are finally showing backbone, and starting to fight. . . A very good sign for our country.

[Thiebear]

The Supreme Court appears to me to be the biggest thing to happen to the Senate since.. the last Supreme Court.. How hard is it to look into it now...

to wait till next year appears to make it frivolous..

Ohh well.. I don't know much about law...

[visionary]

I think it is a good decision. He could be on the SCOTUS for 40 years if he is confirmed, so it is a decision the dems will not take lightly. They are finally showing backbone, and starting to fight. . . A very good sign for our country.

Yeah and the longer they can keep him off the court the better...

j/k

[twa]

Yeah and the longer they can keep him off the court the better...

j/k

Recess appointment over the holidays

[BlueTalon]

I'd like to see Bush offer to recess-appoint Bork if they can't confirm Alito before the recess. (Or whoever his next nominee is before that following recess.)

[DjTj]

Recess appointment over the holidays

I'd like to see Bush offer to recess-appoint Bork if they can't confirm Alito before the recess. (Or whoever his next nominee is before that following recess.)

You all just want to stir up trouble, don't you ...

I think it's hard to complain about this move when the Republicans control the Senate. There's obviously nothing particularly partisan about it - everyone just wants to make sure they have time to go through all the records and give Alito a fair hearing.

You gotta give Judiciary Committee staffers a break here ... they just spent a month reviewing all of Roberts' documents, then a few weeks reviewing Miers documents, and now they're getting Alito's documents, which is at least ten times more material.

I'm sure Republicans want a thorough vetting after the Miers fiasco, and I'm sure Democrats want all the time they can get to dig up dirt. Both sides are probably happy here, and that rarely happens ... I say we just leave it that way for now.

[BlueTalon]

Of course I want to stir up trouble, with a suggestion like that!

I just am amused by the thought of Democrats going absolutely nuts, if they really thought he would do it. (Justice Bork, Justice Gingrich, Justice Coulter...)

[Larry]

Of course I want to stir up trouble, with a suggestion like that!

I just am amused by the thought of Democrats going absolutely nuts, if they really thought he would do it. (Justice Bork, Justice Gingrich, Justice Coulter...)

You might want to consider:

There's a chance that all of these changes that're being made to grant blanket authority to slim majorities, might be rather unpleasant under President Hillary.

Think about Justice Clinton, for a while.

[twa]

Just thinking about Hillary as president is bad enough

[visionary]

I'd like to see Bush offer to recess-appoint Bork if they can't confirm Alito before the recess. (Or whoever his next nominee is before that following recess.)

Now that would be fun!

(But a pretty awful use of that power)

[BlueTalon]

I'm not seriously suggesting it now. Things appear to be moving just fine.

However, it would have been quite appropriate to use it as a strong-arm tactic a year or two ago, when Senate Democrats were holding up Appellate nominees. It would only have taken one to get the message accross that he's serious about doing it, and therefore they need to get off their duffs and give the nominees each a floor vote.