Alito Confirmation Hearings: on Principles & Values
Arlen Specter:
Senate speaks to entire Supreme Court during hearings
SEN. SPECTER: Let me take up the Americans with Disability Act. Justice Scalia criticized [Congress' ADA policy. That policy was based on] a voluminous record--13 congressional hearings, 30,000 people were surveyed.
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.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 11, 2006
Charles Schumer:
Alito responds, but doesn't really answer questions
SEN. SCHUMER: You testified yesterday that you'd keep an open mind. Isn't that right?
ALITO: I did and I do.
SCHUMER: Now are you aware of any nominee in the history of the republic who has come before the Senate and testified he'd keep a closed
mind?
ALITO: I'm not aware of that. But I can only speak for myself.
SCHUMER: This morning's newspapers were filled with headlines to the effect you would keep an open mind.
My friends on the other side of the aisle have repeatedly said you've answered over 200 questions. Now it's probably 300. But a response is not an answer. And you've responded to more than 300 questions but, in all due respect,
you haven't answered enough of them. And so, again, I think we ought to make clear that, at least to many of us here, we haven't gotten the answers to questions, yes or no, on some important issues.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 11, 2006
Samuel Alito:
Pledge of recusal does not last for 12 years
SEN. HATCH: This business with Vanguard, when you signed that back in 1990, 12 years before the matter for which you are being criticized -- that particular statement said will you, during your "initial service." You've just honestly explained that
basically you made a mistake. But the fact of the matter is that "initial service" doesn't mean 12 years away, does it, when there's no chance in the world that you could ever receive any monetary benefit from Vanguard?
ALITO: Well, I don't think
initial service means 12 years away.
HATCH: Neither do I and neither does anybody who cares about justice and what's right in this matter.
SEN. KENNEDY: When you made a pledge to the committee that you were going to recuse yourself, I'd just like
to know how long that was going to be. Was that going to be two years, was it going to be five years?
ALITO: Senator, I did not rely on that time limitation. I would say that 12 years later is not the initial period of service.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 11, 2006
Samuel Alito:
Constitution doesn't change but the factual situations do
I think the Constitution is a living thing in the sense that matters, and 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. It sets out 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.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 10, 2006
Samuel Alito:
All the courts should be insulated from public opinion
Judges should do what the law requires in all instances. That's why the members of the judiciary are not elected. We have a basically democratic form of government, but the judiciary is not elected so that they don't do anything under fire. The
legitimacy of the court would be undermined in any case if the court made a decision based on its perception of public opinion. It should make its decisions based on the Constitution & the law. It should not sway in the wind of public opinion at any time
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 10, 2006
Charles Schumer:
Nominees must prove they're not extreme
While every Supreme Court nominee has a great burden, yours, Judge Alito, is triply high. First, because you have been named to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the pivotal swing vote on a divided court; second,
because you have been picked to placate the extreme right wing after the hasty withdrawal of Harriet Miers; and, finally, because your record of opinions and statements on a number of critical Constitutional questions seems quite extreme.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 9, 2006
John Cornyn:
Justices should respect law, not impose political agendas
Groups are trying to defeat your nomination because you will not support their liberal agenda. I want judges on the Supreme Court who will not use their position to impose a political agenda on the American people.
I want judges on the Supreme Court who will respect the words and meaning of the Constitution, the laws enacted by Congress. A Supreme Court appointment is not a free ticket to rewrite our laws however you and your colleagues see fit."
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 9, 2006
Samuel Alito:
1960s Princeton: "privileged people behaving irresponsibly"
[I was an undergraduate at Princeton] in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was a time of turmoil at colleges and universities. And I saw some very smart people and very privileged people behaving irresponsibly.
And I couldn't help making a contrast between some of the worst of what I saw on the campus and the good sense and the decency of the people back in my own community.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 9, 2006
Samuel Alito:
Good judges can change their minds during a case
Good judges develop certain habits of mind. One of those habits of mind is the habit of delaying reaching conclusions until everything has been considered. Good judges are always open to the possibility of changing their minds based on the next brief
that they read, or the next argument that's made by an attorney who's appearing before them, or a comment that is made by a colleague during the conference on the case when the judges privately discuss the case.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 9, 2006
Samuel Alito:
Attorneys want results; judges want only the rule of law
I've learned a lot during my years on the 3rd Circuit, particularly, I think, about the way in which a judge should go about the work of judging. I've learned by doing, by sitting on all of these cases.
When I became a judge, I stopped being a practicing attorney. And that was a big change in role. The role of a practicing attorney is to achieve a desirable result for the client in the particular case at hand.
But a judge can't think that way. A judge can't have any agenda, a judge can't have any preferred outcome in any particular case and a judge certainly doesn't have a client.
The judge's only obligation -- and it's a solemn obligation -- is to the rule of law. And what that means is that in every single case, the judge has to do what the law requires.
Source: Sam Alito Senate Confirmation Hearings
Jan 9, 2006
Samuel Alito:
Pledges to administer justice without respect to persons
It's been a great honor for me to spend my career in public service. It has been a particular honor for me to serve on the court of appeals for these past 15 years, because it has given me the opportunity to use whatever talent I have to serve my country
by upholding the rule of law. And there is nothing that is more important for our republic than the rule of law. 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. Fifteen years
ago, when I was sworn in as a judge of the court of appeals, I took an oath. I put my hand on the Bible & I swore that I would administer justice without respect to persons, that I would do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I would carry
out my duties under the Constitution and the laws of the United States. And that is what I have tried to do to the very best of my ability for the past 15 years. And if I am confirmed, I pledge to you that that is what I would do on the Supreme Court.
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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