Senate Votes 58-42 to
Confirm
Alito Nomination to
High Court
By AP from the
WSJ.com Online, January 31, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Samuel Anthony
Alito Jr. became the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice Tuesday, confirmed
with the most partisan victory in modern history after a fierce battle over the
future direction of the high court.
The Senate voted 58-42 to confirm Judge Alito -- a federal appellate judge,
former U.S. attorney, and conservative lawyer for the Reagan administration from
New Jersey -- to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a
moderate swing vote on the court.
All but one of the Senate's majority Republicans voted for his confirmation,
while all but four of the Democrats voted against Judge Alito. That is the
smallest number of senators in the president's opposing party to support a
Supreme Court justice in modern history. Chief Justice John Roberts got 22
Democratic votes last year, and Justice Clarence Thomas -- who was confirmed in
1991 on a 52-48 vote -- got 11 Democratic votes.
Judge Alito watched the final vote from the White House's Roosevelt Room with
his family. He was to be sworn in by Chief Justice Roberts at the Supreme
Court in a private ceremony later in the day, in plenty of time for him to
appear with President Bush at the State of the Union speech Tuesday evening.
Judge Alito will be ceremonially sworn in a second time at a White House East
Room appearance on Wednesday.
With the confirmation vote, Justice O'Connor's resignation became official.
She resigned in July but agreed to remain until her successor was confirmed.
She was in Arizona Tuesday teaching a class at the University of Arizona law
school.
Underscoring the rarity of a Supreme Court justice confirmation, senators
answered the roll by standing one by one at their desks as their names were
called, instead of voting and leaving the chamber. Judge Alito and Chief
Justice Roberts are the first two new members of the Supreme Court since 1994.
Judge Alito is a longtime federal appeals judge, having been unanimously
confirmed by the Senate to the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Philadelphia on April 27, 1990. Before that, he worked as New Jersey's
U.S. attorney and as a lawyer in the Justice Department for the conservative
Reagan administration.
It was his Reagan-era work that caused the most controversy during his
three-month candidacy for the high court.
Judge Alito succeeds Justice O'Connor, the court's first female justice and a
key moderate swing vote on issues like assisted suicide, campaign-finance law,
the death penalty, affirmative action and abortion.
Critics who mounted a fierce campaign against his nomination noted that while he
worked in the solicitor general's office for President Reagan, he suggested that
the Justice Department should try to chip away at abortion rights rather than
mount an all-out assault. He also wrote in a 1985 job application for
another Reagan administration post that he was proud of his work helping the
government argue that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an
abortion."
Now, Judge Alito says, he has great respect for Roe as a precedent but
refused to commit to upholding it in the future. "I would approach the
question with an open mind and I would listen to the arguments that were made,"
he told senators at his confirmation hearing earlier this month.
Democrats weren't convinced, and some even tried -- unsuccessfully -- to rally
support for a filibuster Monday. "The 1985 document amounted to Judge
Alito's pledge of allegiance to a conservative radical Republican ideology,"
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said before the vote.
Democrats also repeatedly questioned Judge Alito at his five-day confirmation
hearing during which he refused to discuss his opinions about abortion or other
contentious topics. At one point, his wife, Martha-Ann, started crying and
left the hearing room as her husband's supporters defended him from the
Democratic questioning.
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