Both Sides Warming Up for Alito Hearings
WASHINGTON — Gearing up to do battle at congressional hearings next week, supporters and critics of Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. squared off over his federal court record Wednesday, with the American Bar Assn. rating him "well qualified" to sit on the nation's highest court and liberal interest groups denouncing him as "far out of the mainstream."
In particular, liberal critics accused him of applying legal principles inconsistently during his 15 years as a federal appellate court judge, using varying rationales to favor big business, presidential authority and causes supported by political conservatives.
"Judge Alito is in some respects to the right of Justice [Antonin] Scalia and is more like Justice [Clarence] Thomas," said Elliot Mincberg, general counsel for the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, which released a report on Alito's record.
A separate analysis released Wednesday by the Alliance for Justice, another liberal group, estimated that in federal appeals cases where judges issued a split decision, Alito sided with the government 82% of the time and with individual plaintiffs 18% of the time. In those cases, the group said, the majority of the federal judges ruled more evenly -- with the government 54% of the time and with individual plaintiffs 46% of the time.
Seth Rosenthal, legal director for the Alliance for Justice, said the group's analysis said "something about how much Judge Alito defers to federal authority."
The American Bar Assn.'s decision to give Alito its highest rating was highlighted Wednesday by White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, who told reporters that "leading Senate Democrats have said in the past that the ABA rating is the 'gold standard' for evaluating judicial nominees."
The association's 15-member Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary rates prospective federal judges, focusing on qualifications, integrity and judicial temperament. Alito had been rated "well qualified" in 1990 when he was nominated to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the case of Supreme Court nominees, the panel undertakes a more extensive examination of a candidate's background.
Alito's "well qualified" rating for the high court -- defined by the ABA as "reserved for those found to merit the committee's strongest affirmative endorsement" -- was awarded unanimously, with one committee member not participating.
- Federal Judge, Wife, Maid Bound and Robbed Jul 01, 1994
- Davis Should Seek a Star for Court Jul 09, 2001
- Politicized Courts: They're a Time-Honored Tradition Sep 21, 2003
