Arlen Specter in Alito Confirmation Hearings

On Principles & Values: Senate speaks to entire Supreme Court during hearings

ALITO: [Scalia's dissent] addresses a difficult problem the court has grappled with over the years, and that is the scope of Congress' authority under the 14th Amendment. Justice Scalia's [argument] is that Congress doesn't have additional authority to enact prophylactic measures outside of the area of race.

SPECTER: It's up to the Congress to have hearings, up to the Congress to find facts, up to the Congress to find out what goes on in the real world. We're speaking not only to you, Judge Alito, but to the court. The court watches these proceedings. They ought to know what the Congress thinks about making us schoolchildren or challenging our method of reasoning. We're considering legislation which would give Congress standing to go into the Supreme Court to uphold our cases.

On Technology: Supreme Court proceedings should be televised

ALITO: I had the opportunity to deal with this issue, actually, in relation to my own court. All the courts of appeals were given the authority to allow their oral arguments to be televised if they wanted. I argued that we should do it. I thought that it would be a useful. The issue is a little bit different on the Supreme Court. At least one of the justices has said that a television camera would make its way into the Supreme Court room over his dead body.

On Government Reform: Nominees only answer as many questions as they have to