OT emperor appoints 2nd imperial appointer
- From: gk1@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: 31 Jan 2006 08:33:27 -0800
kinda circular, huh? they appoint him and he appoints them. with a
rubber stamp from the imperial senate, of course. LOL he could have
appointed joe, his bike mechanic, and the senate would have been like
"well, we're not sure about his legal stature, but oh well, we
approve."
well, now we will see what happens to roe.
G
Senate Confirms Alito to Supreme Court By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated
Press Writer
4 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. became the nation's 110th Supreme
Court justice on Tuesday, confirmed with the most partisan victory in
modern history after a fierce battle over the future direction of the
high court.
The Senate voted 58-42 to confirm Alito - a former federal appellate
judge, U.S. attorney, and conservative lawyer for the Reagan
administration from New Jersey - as the replacement for retiring
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a moderate swing vote on
the court.
All but one of the Senate's majority Republicans voted for his
confirmation, while all but four of the Democrats voted against Alito.
That is the smallest number of senators in the president's opposing
party to support a Supreme Court justice in modern history. Chief
Justice John Roberts got 22 Democratic votes last year, and Justice
Clarence Thomas - who was confirmed in 1991 on a 52-48 vote - got
11 Democratic votes.
Alito watched the final vote from the White House's Roosevelt Room with
his family. He was to be sworn in by Roberts at the Supreme Court in a
private ceremony later in the day, in plenty of time for him to appear
with President Bush at the State of the Union speech Tuesday
evening.
Alito will be ceremonially sworn in a second time at a White House East
Room appearance on Wednesday.
With the confirmation vote, O'Connor's resignation became official. She
resigned in July but agreed to remain until her successor was
confirmed. She was in Arizona Tuesday teaching a class at the
University of Arizona law school.
Underscoring the rarity of a Supreme Court justice confirmation,
senators answered the roll by standing one by one at their desks as
their names were called, instead of voting and leaving the chamber.
Alito and Roberts are the first two new members of the Supreme Court
since 1994.
Alito is a longtime federal appeals judge, having been confirmed by the
Senate by unanimous consent on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Philadelphia on April 27, 1990. Before that, he worked as New Jersey's
U.S. attorney and as a lawyer in the Justice Department for the
conservative Reagan administration.
It was his Reagan-era work that caused the most controversy during his
three-month candidacy for the high court.
Alito replaces O'Connor, the court's first female justice and a key
moderate swing vote on issues like assisted suicide, campaign finance
law, the death penalty, affirmative action and abortion.
Critics who mounted a fierce campaign against his nomination noted that
while he worked in the solicitor general's office for President Reagan,
he suggested that the Justice Department should try to chip away at
abortion rights rather than mount an all-out assault. He also wrote in
a 1985 job application for another Reagan administration post that he
was proud of his work helping the government argue that "the
Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."
Now, Alito says, he has great respect for Roe as a precedent but
refused to commit to upholding it in the future. "I would approach the
question with an open mind and I would listen to the arguments that
were made," he told senators at his confirmation hearing earlier this
month.
Democrats weren't convinced, with liberals even unsuccessfully trying
to rally support to filibuster Alito on Monday. "The 1985 document
amounted to Judge Alito's pledge of allegiance to a conservative
radical Republican ideology," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of
Nevada said before the vote.
They also repeatedly questioned Alito at his five-day confirmation
hearing after he would not discuss his opinions about abortion or other
contentious topics. At one point, his wife, Martha-Ann, started crying
and left the hearing room as her husband's supporters defended him from
the Democratic questioning.
"To Judge Alito, I say you deserve a seat on the Supreme Court," said
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Alito's path to the Supreme Court is infused with New Jersey
connections. Born in Trenton as the son of an Italian immigrant, he
attended Princeton University. He headed to Connecticut to receive his
law degree, graduating from Yale University in 1975. His late father,
Samuel Alito Sr., was the director of New Jersey's Office of
Legislative Services from 1952 to 1984. Alito's sister, Rosemary, is a
top employment lawyer in New Jersey.
Alito was not the White House's first choice - or even second choice
- for the Supreme Court. Bush picked Roberts when O'Connor first
announced she was stepping down last year.
After Roberts was promoted to the top spot after Chief Justice
William Rehnquist died, the White House against passed over Alito for
the vacant seat, instead selecting White House counsel Harriet Miers.
Miers' withdrawal following a barrage of conservative criticism in late
October finally brought Alito's name to the forefront, although he then
had to contend with constant references as "Scalito" or "Scalia-lite,"
references to his judicial similarity to Justice Antonin Scalia.
"I'm my own person. And I'm not like any other justice on the Supreme
Court now or anybody else who served on the Supreme Court in the past,"
Alito said at his confirmation hearing.
.
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