Patrick Leahy in Alito Confirmation Hearings

On Homeland Security: Bush thinks anti-torture statue doesn't apply to him

SEN. LEAHY: We passed the McCain-Warner statute against torture. The President didn't veto it. He signed it into law and then he wrote a signing statement basically saying that it will not apply to him or those acting under his orders if he doesn't want it to. Under a unitary theory of government, one could argue that he has an absolute right to ignore a law that the Congress has written. What kind of weight do you think should be given to signing statements?

ALITO: I don't see any connection between the concept of a unitary executive and the weight that should be given to signing statements in interpreting statutes. If a statute is not unconstitutional, then the statute is binding on the president and everyone else.

LEAHY: But does the president have unlimited power just to declare a statute--especially if it is a statute he had signed into law--unconstitutional, and that he's not going to follow it?

ALITO: It is emphatically the duty of the courts to say what is constitutional.

Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings Jan 11, 2006

On Government Reform: 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). Click here for a profile of Patrick Leahy.
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