Congress opens Alito Supreme Court nomination hearings

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said Monday that judges should operate free of any agenda or preferred outcome as the Senate opened hearings on President Bush's choice for the high court.\n"A judge can't have any agenda. A judge can't have a preferred outcome in any case," Alito told the Senate Judiciary Committee in a brief statement in which he made the distinction between judges and attorneys working for clients.\nIn a prelude to days of grilling, several Democrats expressed misgivings about Alito's 15 years of decisions and opinions as an appellate judge and his writings during his tenure as a lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department.\n"Your record raises troubling questions about whether you appreciate the checks and balances in our Constitution -- the careful efforts of our Founding Fathers to protect us from a government or a president determined to seize too much power over our lives," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.\nThe hearings opened amid a growing debate about executive authority and Bush's secret decision to order the National Security Agency to wiretap Americans in the terror war.\n"In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture, and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge Alito's support for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.\nSaid Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.: "We need judges who see themselves as custodians of the rights and freedoms that the Constitution guarantees, even when the president of the United States is telling the country that he should be able to decide unilaterally how far those freedoms go."\nRepublican Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio offered a counterpoint. "Your modest approach to judging seems to bode well for our democracy," he said.\nThe hearings come just months after the Senate confirmed John Roberts as chief justice, and Republicans frequently cited the standard set by Roberts in his hearings for the high court.\nRepublicans also defended Alito, the president's pick to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, describing him as a fair-minded and brilliant jurist who would be a welcome addition to the court.\n"Sam's got the intellect necessary to bring a lot of class to that court," said Bush in a good-luck sendoff for Alito at the White House.\nAlito, said Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, "has a reputation for being an exceptional and honest judge devoted to the rule of law, and a man of integrity."\nAlito, 55, introduced members of his family -- including his wife, Martha, sister, Rosemary, and his son and daughter -- and then sat and listened to the opening statements from the first of the committee's 18 members. Only after their remarks would the nominee get a chance to make his opening statement.\nPolitics loomed large in the confirmation process, but Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah urged his colleagues to put them aside in assessing Alito's qualifications.\n"We must apply a judicial, not a political, standard to this record," Hatch said.\nAlito, a judge on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, was chosen by Bush on Oct. 31. A graduate of Princeton University and Yale Law School, Alito served as a prosecutor in New Jersey and a lawyer in the Reagan administration.\n"My hope of course is that the Senate bring dignity to the process and give this man a fair hearing and an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor," Bush said before Monday's hearing. He added: "Sam, good luck to you."\nTen-minute opening statements by the Judiciary Committee's 18 members consumed much of the opening session, with direct questioning of Alito to get fully under way today. The hearings were expected to last at least two days.\nSpecter said he would wrap up the hearings this week. He has called for a committee vote by Jan. 17.\nRepublican leaders hope for confirmation by the full Senate on Jan. 20, but Leahy would not promise the schedule would hold.