Do You Know Alito? Is the Confirmation Process Sufficient?

The Supreme Court has the power to affect our daily lives through decisions on everything from privacy to workplace standards to health issues. And Supreme Court Justices serve a life term, so their decisions influence Americans for decades. That’s why it’s especially important to pay attention to the nomination and confirmation process; the outcome will affect each of us.

The confirmation process consists of hearings conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee and a floor vote in the Senate. The hearings are meant to help the Senate and the American people to get to know the nominee and determine if she or he is capable of and suitable for the Supreme Court of the United States.

As the hearings on Samuel A. Alito Jr. came to a close, many began to wonder if the confirmation process was adequate. After the hearings, even the experts said that they’re not sure what to expect from him if he’s confirmed.

Should Senators and the Americans they represent have a clear understanding of where a nominee sits on key issues, or is it enough to know that she or he is qualified for the job?

Democrats say

Democrats like Chuck Schumer of New York complained that Alito dodged many of their direct questions about abortion, executive power and other controversial issues.

They say that Alito was astute in his enumeration of Supreme Court decisions that relate to these issues, but that he never really laid out his own judicial philosophies.

Schumer and others believe that a nominee’s judicial philosophy is as essential as her or his qualifications and that a nominee should make that philosophy clear to the American public.

Republicans say

On the other hand, Republicans on the committee felt that Alito answered the questions fully and because of his experience and competent performance, no more could be asked of him.

Committee Chair Arlen Specter announced that Alito satisfied the criteria for a Supreme Court nominee and that he would vote to confirm him. This is significant since Specter went into the hearings not knowing which way he was going to vote and Specter is a long time supporter of women’s reproductive rights.

From this point of view, the hearings sufficiently acquainted Alito and the Senate. Specter has made it clear that he does not expect nominees to hypothesize how they would vote on an issue. In an editorial in The New York Times, Specter pointed out that "confirmation precedents forcefully support the propriety of a nominee declining to spell out how he or she would vote on a specific case. Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have said pretty much the same thing: ‘We cannot ask a man what he will do, and if we should and he should answer us, we would despise him. Therefore, we must take a man whose opinions are known.’"

Both Specter and Lincoln make a good case for protecting nominees from answering direct questions about how they would rule in a certain case. But since it‘s not a law, but rather precedent or tradition that reinforces the rule, it is worth asking, have times changed enough to where judicial nominees need to answer directly about their published views and beliefs and is that different from telling us how they would rule in hypothetical cases that may come up before the Supreme Court?

Your input matters

Since so much in Congress these days tends to split along party lines, do you think that the confirmation process is useful? What would you like to know about your Supreme Court nominees? What should they have to answer, and what can they keep to themselves? If you were alone in a room with Alito, what would you ask him?

Your representatives in Congress DO care what you think. Especially now -- 2006 is an election year and many representatives will be looking to reconnect with their constituents. Let your congressmen and women know what you think! Give your senators a piece of your mind! To find your reps, click here.

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Posted on: 1/18/2006