Jeff Sessions:
Supreme Court exceeds its authority and needs reining in
SEN. SESSIONS: I asked Chief Justice Roberts about activism by the court, overreaching by the court, and he felt that this overreaching created a danger that it could undermine respect for law in our country. Do you share that view?
ALITO: I agree
that overreaching by the courts can undermine respect for law. Nobody elects us. Our job is to interpret the Constitution, it has a meaning, and you apply it to the situations that come up.
SESSIONS: I feel that the court on some very important issues
is exceeding its authority. People are calling on me and those of us in Congress to do something about it.
ALITO: I think your policy views are much more legitimate than the policy views of the judiciary because members of Congress are elected for the
purpose of formulating and implementing public policy and members of the judiciary are appointed for the purpose of interpreting and applying the law.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 11, 2006
Samuel Alito:
Over-reaching by Court undermines respect for law
SEN. SESSIONS: I asked Chief Justice Roberts about activism by the court, overreaching by the court, and he felt that this overreaching created a danger that it could undermine respect for law in our country. Do you share that view?
ALITO: I agree
that overreaching by the courts can undermine respect for law. Nobody elects us. Our job is to interpret the Constitution, it has a meaning, and you apply it to the situations that come up.
SESSIONS: I feel that the court on some very important issues
is exceeding its authority. People are calling on me and those of us in Congress to do something about it.
ALITO: I think your policy views are much more legitimate than the policy views of the judiciary because members of Congress are elected for the
purpose of formulating and implementing public policy and members of the judiciary are appointed for the purpose of interpreting and applying the law.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 11, 2006
Samuel Alito:
No one is above the law and no one is beneath the law
SEN. GRASSLEY: Judge Alito, in your opening statement you said -- and I hope I quote you accurately -- "No person in this country, no matter how high or powerful, is above the law, and no person in this country is beneath the law."
You didn't go into detail about what you meant. I think it's quite clear above the law. But give us that diverse opinion, above the law versus beneath the law.
ALITO: Every person has equal rights under the law in this country, and that involves includes people have no money, that includes people who do not hold any higher or prestigious position, it includes people who are citizens and people who are not citiz
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 11, 2006
Samuel Alito:
Supports one-person-one-vote within a deviation of 10%
GRASSLEY: You've been criticized for being hostile to voting rights based upon a 1985 statement regarding the electoral reapportionment, that is how districts are drawn. They suggested that you're hostile to the principle of one person, one vote. Nowhere
in your '85 statement did you write that you ever disagreed with the principle of one person, one vote. Did you?
ALITO: I never disagreed with that principle, Senator. My father's work with the N.J. legislature [attempted to] bring it into compliance
with the one person, one vote standard. These provisions, however, because they tried to respect county and municipal lines, resulted in population deviations of under 10 percent, but those deviations were much higher than the ones that the Supreme Court
said would be tolerated. It seemed to me an instance of taking a good principle, which is one person, one vote, and taking it to extremes, requiring that districts be exactly equal in population, which did not seem to me to be a sensible idea.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 11, 2006
Samuel Alito:
Supports stare decisis--following prior precedents
I think the doctrine of stare decisis is a very important doctrine. It's a fundamental part of our legal system. It's the principle that courts in general should follow their past precedents. And it's important for a variety of reasons. It's
important because it limits the power of the judiciary. And it's important because it reflects the view that courts should respect the judgments and the wisdom that are embodied in prior judicial decisions.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 10, 2006
Samuel Alito:
Executive power issues are not often resolved by the court
The President has to follow the Constitution and the laws. And, in fact, one of the most solemn responsibilities of the President--and it's set out expressly in the Constitution--is that the President is to take care that the laws are faithfully executed
and that means the Constitution. It means statutes. It means treaties. It means all of the laws of the US. But what I am saying is that sometimes issues of executive power arise, and they have to be analyzed under the framework that Justice [Robert]
Jackson set out. And you do get cases that are in this twilight zone, and they have to be decided when they come up based on the specifics of the situation. You'd have to look at the specifics of the situation.
These are the gravest sort of constitutional questions that come up. And very often there they don't make their way to the judiciary or they're not resolved by the judiciary; they're resolved by the other branches of the government.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 10, 2006
Samuel Alito:
Constitution is a living thing, with unchanging principles
The Constitution is a living thing in the sense that matters--that it sets up a framework of government and a protection of fundamental rights that we have lived under very successfully for 200 years. And the genius of it is that it is not terribly
specific on certain things. Some things are very specific, but it sets out some general principles and then leaves it for each generation to apply those to the particular factual situations that come up. The liberty component of the Fifth Amendment
and the 14th Amendment embody the deeply rooted traditions of a country. Those traditions and those rights apply to new factual situations that come up. As times change, new factual situations come up, and the principles have to be applied to those
situations.
The principles don't change. The Constitution itself doesn't change. But the factual situations change. And, as new situations come up, the principles and the rights have to be applied to them.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 10, 2006
Arlen Specter:
Nominees only answer as many questions as they have to
While I personally consider it inappropriate to ask a nominee how he would vote on a specific matter likely to come before the court, senators may ask whatever they choose and the nominee is similarly free to respond as he chooses.
It has been my experience that the hearings are a subtle minuet with nominees answering as many questions as they think they have to in order to be confirmed.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 9, 2006
Dick Durbin:
Justices should not restrict our rights and freedoms
Time and again the vacancy you seek to fill was the most important vote on the court for civil rights, human rights, women's rights, workers' rights, and restraining an overreaching president. The person who fills the O'Connor vacancy will truly
tip the balance of the scales of justice in America. Judge Alito, millions of Americans are very concerned about your nomination. They are worried that you would be a judicial activist who would restrict our rights and freedoms.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 9, 2006
Patrick Leahy:
Justices should effectively check government overreaching
The challenge for Judge Alito in the course of these hearings is to demonstrate that he will protect the rights and liberties of all Americans and serve as an effective check on government overreaching. The president has not helped
his cause by withdrawing his earlier nomination of Harriet Miers in the face of criticism from an extreme faction of his own party.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 9, 2006
The above quotations are from Samuel Alito, Senate confirmation hearings for his Supreme Court nomination, January 2006 (plus commentary).
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