Bush Nominates Judge Alito to Fill Court Vacancy
WASHINGTON -- President Bush today nominated Samuel A. Alito Jr., a federal appeals court judge from New Jersey who has had strong backing from Bush's conservative allies, to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If confirmed by the Senate, Alito, 55, a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, would replace Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the court. Appointed to the bench by President George H. W. Bush after serving as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, he has been an appellate court judge for 15 years.
Bush disclosed his decision at a hastily announced appearance on national television in the White House Cross Hall.
"Judge Alito is one of the most accomplished and respected judges in America," the president said. He said Alito "has shown a mastery of the law, a deep commitment of justice, and he is a man of enormous character."
"He's scholarly, fair-minded and principled, and these qualities will serve our nation well on the highest court of the land," Bush said with Alito at his side and the judge's wife, Martha-Ann, son Phillip, and daughter Laura, standing nearby in front of a portrait of President Bill Clinton.
In remarks that emphasized Alito's extensive resume as a constitutional lawyer — the area in which the president's previous nominee, Harriet E. Miers was seen as lacking — Bush said that the judge had participated in "thousands" of appeals court cases and had written "hundreds" of decisions.
He did not dwell on Alito's seemingly conservative bent, or on the support the judge has received, in anticipation of the nomination, from conservative groups.
The choice drew immediate criticism from liberal activists, fearful that Bush was replacing a moderate justice whose voice was often the deciding vote between conservatives and liberals on the bench, with a conservative justice believed to be in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia.
Foreshadowing a fight over the nomination, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called for giving Alito "an especially long hard look" in view of the problems Miers encountered.
"Conservative activists forced Miers to withdraw from consideration for this same Supreme Court seat because she was not radical enough for them. Now the Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people," Reid said in a statement issued before Bush made his announcement.
He also complained that with the appointment of a white male, "President Bush would leave the Supreme Court looking less like America and more like an old boys club."
Among those who had been deeply skeptical about Miers, Sen. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican from Kansas, said Alito had "impressive" academic credentials and "broad" legal experience.
Brownback, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will consider the nomination, commended Bush for the decision. He said the panel would have "a robust and, I hope, civil dialogue with the nominee about the meaning of the Constitution and the role of the courts in American life."
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), another member of the committee, however, said: "Rather than selecting a nominee for the good of the nation and the court, President Bush has picked a nominee whom he hopes will stop the massive hemorrhaging of support on his right wing. This is a nomination based on weakness, not on strength."
Kennedy added: "After insisting that Harriet Miers shouldn't even get a hearing because she couldn't prove she was extreme enough, the far right has now forced the President to choose a nominee that they think has views as extreme as their own."
On Sunday, with the capital aswirl in reports that Alito was among those at the top of Bush's list, the outlines of an extremely divisive fight over the nomination began to take shape.
Alito is the third person Bush will have nominated for the seat. In July he put forward John G. Roberts Jr., but then switched Roberts to be chief justice after William H. Rehnquist died on Sept. 3.
Four weeks ago, Bush nominated Miers, his White House counsel, for the post. She withdrew her nomination Thursday in the wake of sharp criticism from conservatives that she did not reflect their thinking on social policy — and that she may harbor liberal views on abortion — and complaints from across the political spectrum that her knowledge of constitutional law was insufficient.
Alito, the son an Italian immigrant, was graduated from Princeton University and, while at Yale Law School, was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He clerked for Judge Leonard Garth of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
He served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the appellate division from 1977 to 1988, arguing cases before the Third Circuit bench, and served as an assistant to the solicitor general from 1981 to 1985, arguing 12 cases for the U.S. government before the Supreme Court. He was approved for the appeals court seat — before his 40th birthday — by the unanimous consent of the Senate and an indication of wide bipartisan support.
Using the buzzwords signaling that the nominee would not seek to impose policy from the bench — a concern in recent years of conservatives seeking to limit the reach of liberal judges appointed by Democrats — Bush said of Alito: "He understands that judges are to interpret the laws, not to impose their preferences or priorities on the people."
His extensive history handling appeals cases — first as a clerk, eventually as a lawyer appearing before the court, and then on an appeals court itself — stands in sharp contrast to Miers' resume. She had spent little time in any court room while working as a corporate lawyer, and none during the past five years in the Bush White House.
Indeed, Bush said, Alito has had more experience as a judge than any Supreme Court nominee in the past 70 years. The nomination comes at a particularly difficult time for Bush, following the failure of Miers to gain traction, falling support for the war in Iraq, the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and complaints that the administration dropped the ball in responding to Hurricane Katrina.
A popular nominee could help shore up Bush's support in his base, counteracting slumping poll ratings. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) expressed concern Sunday that Democrats might filibuster a staunchly conservative nominee.
"I'm very worried about that," he told CNN's "Late Edition." "The topic which dominates the discussion, as we all know, is a woman's right to choose. And you have both sides poles apart and insistent on finding some answer to that question in advance of the hearing, which no one is entitled to."
This year, a bipartisan compromise brokered by 14 senators resulted in an agreement by Democrats to forestall filibusters of Bush's judicial nominees except in "extraordinary circumstances" — a term that so far has remained undefined.
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Posted by Editor at October 31, 2005 11:28 AM
