A Supreme Day for America as Justice Alito Takes the Bench     1/31/2006
By Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel

The left’s resounding defeat sends a clear message.

It should please the Court.

Samuel A. Alito Jr. took the oath of office today as the 110th Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Alito was elevated to the nation’s highest court after having served 15 years as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

It’s been 92 days since President Bush announced the nomination—the longest period in nomination history. Alito endured 30 hours of questioning by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee during five days of hearings in which he answered more than 650 questions.

Judge Alito amazed even his most ardent supporters by his grace and humility as he endured the slings and arrows of outrageously vicious attempts to defeat him by liberals on the Committee who are desperate to keep conservative constitutionalists off the bench.

While most media continued to report that only a small segment of the American public was paying any attention to the nomination, comments by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) belied the spin.

In his speech announcing his support of Alito’s confirmation, Byrd said he had received handwritten letters from the people of West Virginia who expressed their feelings about the hearing. He said the two words were “outrage and disgrace.”

The people of West Virginia in no uncertain terms were, frankly, appalled by the Alito hearings. I don't want to say it, but I must. They were appalled. In the reams of correspondence that I received during the Alito hearings, West Virginians--the people I represent--West Virginians who wrote to criticize the way in which the hearings were conducted used the same two words. People with no connection to one another. People of different faiths. Different views. Different opinions. [They] independently and respectively used the same two words to describe the hearings. They called them called an outrage and a disgrace.

And these were not form letters ginned up by special interest groups on either the right or the left. These were handwritten, contemplative, old-fashioned letters written on lined paper and personal stationary. They were the sort of letters that people write while watching television in the comfort of their living rooms or sitting at the kitchen table. It is especially telling that many who objected to the way in which the Alito hearings were conducted do not support Judge Alito. In fact, it is sorely apparent that many who opposed Judge Alito's nomination also opposed the seemingly made-for-TV antics that accompanied the hearings.

The letters from West Virginians came at a time when they were dealing with two coal mine crises and the resulting grief over the loss of the miners. If that doesn’t debunk the notion once-and-for-all that Americans don’t care about the courts, it should. Americans care because the courts affect every area of their lives.

The resounding defeat the left suffered, despite raising and spending millions to defeat Judge Alito, sends a clear message. No stealth nominees need apply. Standing firm on a record that demonstrates respect for the written Constitution, separation of powers, the rule of law, and the limited role of the judiciary is a winner with Americans.

Congratulations to Justice Samuel Alito and thank you, President Bush, for keeping your word.

To read more on the confirmation process of Judge Alito, click here for CWA’s Courts page.

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