Alito hearings hit many topics, make clear his possible votes on few

Published: 2006-01-17

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- By the time Judge Samuel Alito Jr.'s Senate confirmation hearings finished Jan. 13, he had answered around 700 questions over the better part of three days, and spent nearly the same amount of time listening to senators explaining their own views and parsing his answers. Alito, a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 1990, spent hours responding to questions on everything from his judicial theories to his membership in a controversial group called Concerned Alumni of Princeton. And while some Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee in particular never seemed happy with Alito's answers, it appeared likely he would be approved by both the committee and the full Senate. Floor debate and a vote of the full Senate would follow the Jan. 24 scheduled vote of the committee. Among the subjects pursued persistently by senators on the committee was abortion and whether Alito might be likely to vote to overturn laws, including Roe v. Wade, that made it legal. He also fielded questions about his views on the separation of church and state, immigration and capital punishment, amid the hours of back and forth on legal precedents and his rulings as a judge.

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