Contact: Sean McCabe at (703) 683-5004
January 24, 2006
Washington, D.C. Wendy E. Long, counsel to The Judicial Confirmation Network, today made the following statement on the 10-8 straight party line vote on the nomination of Judge Sam Alito by the Senate Judiciary Committee:
"This vote has less to do with the merits of the nominee than almost any vote for any Supreme Court Justice in history. Judge Alito is a man of unquestioned legal brilliance, integrity, fairness, and judicial temperament. He has more federal judicial experience than almost any Justice nominated in United States history. He was rated unanimously well-qualified for the Supreme Court by the ABA. His fellow judges, law clerks, and colleagues testify to his fairness and impartiality and absence of a political agenda. Men, women, black, white, liberal, conservative everyone who knows him supports him overwhelmingly.
"This vote is the culmination of a partisan set-up that began with the 78-22 vote for Chief Justice Roberts. Many of the Democrats who voted for him did so to set up a false credibility in order to vote against President Bush's next nominee. Judge Alito just happens to be that nominee.
"As Chairman Specter said, 'there's not a dime's worth of difference' between the substance of the answers Chief Justice Roberts and Judge Alito gave the Judiciary Committee. Both the Chief Justice and Judge Alito clearly equal or exceed Justice Ginsburg and Breyer, the most recent Supreme Court nominees from a Democrat President, in terms of intellect, experience, fairness, and judicial temperament. Justice Ginsburg, a known far-left liberal, was confirmed by 96-3.
"The Ted Kennedy-ACLU wing of the Democratic Party is clearly cracking the whip and pressuring Democrats to vote against Judge Alito, because they don't want brilliant, fair, impartial judges. They want Supreme Court Justices who will do their bidding and force their liberal agenda on America from the bench. Fortunately, a majority of Senators will not allow their partisan agenda to keep a good man and a great judge off the Court."
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