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After 3 days, Alito completes testimony

Supreme Court nominee takes step toward confirmation

From Bill Mears
CNN Washington Bureau

Judge Samuel Alito answers a question Thursday from Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts.

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Kennedy presses Alito on mutual fund case (4:55)

Biden asks about separation of powers (3:01)

Alito talks about the Constitution and death penalty (5:34)

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito took a step toward confirmation Thursday as he wrapped up testimony before a Senate panel after 18 hours of questioning in which he appeared to avoid any obvious political pitfalls.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee praised Alito's judicial record and poise, while Democrats complained his answers were evasive and incomplete.

The top Democrat on the committee said he had still not decided how to vote, but he expressed reservations about the 55-year-old federal appeals court judge.

"I continue to be worried -- and I pressed the questions again today, as I have all week long," Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont told reporters. "He is not clear that he would serve to protect America's fundamental rights."

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, told Alito he thought the panel had heard evidence, including views expressed in his judicial record, that made it difficult to vote for his nomination.

"Unfortunately, by refusing to confront our questions directly and by giving us responses that really don't illuminate how you really think, as opposed to real answers, many of us have no choice but to conclude that you still embrace those views completely, or in large part and would continue in a similar fashion on the Supreme Court," Schumer said.

Throughout three often contentious days of testimony, Alito handled persistent Democratic questioning over his 15-year record as a judge and earlier service as a government attorney.

At least one Republican committee member said he thought the confirmation vote in the full Senate would be close.

"I think there may well be a strict party-line vote," Sen. John Cornryn, R-Texas, told reporters.

The GOP controls 55 seats in the Senate, meaning Alito would be confirmed unless some Republicans vote no or Democrats block a full Senate vote through parliamentary procedure.

CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said a filibuster was unlikely.

"The point is the key to this was whether or not there was enough critical mass established during these hearings to trigger not only a filibuster but ... that so-called nuclear option," Toobin said, referring to a move to prohibit filibusters of judicial nominees.

"I'm pretty sure, I could always call for one order of crow, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen."

The committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, has said he hoped the panel could vote on Alito's confirmation next week and the full Senate could vote the following week.

Name not in group's papers

Thursday's session began with Specter announcing that Alito's name was not on any documents reviewed from a controversial Princeton alumni group that criticized admitting more women and minorities to his alma mater.

Specter said that staffers reviewed four boxes of documents Wednesday night from a leader of Concerned Alumni of Princeton, or CAP, and that Alito's name was not mentioned in any of the papers.

Alito listed his membership in the group on a 1985 job application.

"The files contain minutes and attendance records from CAP meetings in 1983 and 1984, just before Samuel Alito listed the organization on his job application, but Samuel Alito did not attend any of those meetings, at least according to those records," Specter said. "He's not even mentioned in the minutes."

Alito has testified that he doesn't recall joining and has strongly denounced the group's purported support for admission restrictions on women and minorities. Princeton began admitting women when he was an undergraduate, a move he said he always supported.

"It's no wonder Sam Alito cannot remember much about his affiliation with the group," Specter said. "CAP's records prove that any such affiliation was minimal."

During Wednesday's questioning, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, criticized Alito's membership in the group and wanted the committee to subpoena its records, which are kept in the Library of Congress, leading to a testy exchange with Specter. (Watch as the nomination hearing gets heated -- 3:31)

Right-to-die cases

At Thursday's hearing, Alito said that he supports broadening the rights of family members in cases where the right to die is at issue.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in the headline-grabbing case of Terri Schiavo, a severely brain damaged woman who died after her feeding tube was removed. Her husband had authorized the tube's removal; her parents had opposed it.

The dispute centered on whether Schiavo would have agreed with her husband's decision to have the tube removed.

Alito agreed a person with a living will had the right to name a family member to decide whether to use extraordinary measures to keep that person alive.

"That's an extension of the traditional right that I was talking about that existed under common law, and it's been developed by state legislatures, and in some instances, state courts to deal with the living will situation," he said.

The nominee predicted more courts will be forced to deal with the issue as medical technology develops and the use of living wills increase.

Vanguard matter raised again

Also Thursday, Kennedy again asked Alito about a 2002 ruling for a mutual company in which the judge had investments.

Alito said he had not violated any ethical standards but admitted an "oversight" for failing to put the investment company, Vanguard, on a formal recusal list. He later withdrew from the case when questions of conflict of interest were raised.

Kennedy said Alito had changed his story several times. "You failed to give us any plausible explanation" on the matter, the senator said.

Alito was never sanctioned, and the American Bar Association found no wrongdoing. Legal ethicists have split on whether there was any technical violation of judicial conduct laws.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said, "Now, what is going on here is nothing but an attempt to make a big deal about nothing, a small thing. And I think it's being done with a bit of old bait-and-switch, if you ask my opinion. "

When hearings resume Thursday afternoon, the committee will hear from opponents and supporters of the nominee, including judges of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the nominee now sits. Members of the American Bar Association, which recently gave Alito its highest ranking for judicial qualification, also were scheduled to testify.