Samuel Alito sworn in as the 110th Supreme Court justice

WASHINGTON -- Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. was sworn in as the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice on Tuesday after being confirmed by the Senate in one of the most partisan victories in modern history.\nAlito was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court building across from the Capitol at about 12:40 p.m. EST, court officials said.\nAlito and his wife, Martha-Ann Bomgardner, along with other members of the court and their spouses, attended the ceremony in the justices' conference room. The 55-year-old New Jersey jurist took both the constitutional and judicial oaths so he can immediately participate in court decisions.\nAlito will be ceremonially sworn in a second time at a White House East Room appearance on Wednesday.\n"Sam Alito is a brilliant and fair-minded judge who strictly interprets the Constitution and laws and does not legislate from the bench," President Bush said after the vote. "He is a man of deep character and integrity, and he will make all Americans proud as a justice on our highest court."\nAlito's swearing-in came only hours after the Senate voted 58-42 to confirm Alito -- a former federal appellate judge, U.S. attorney, and conservative lawyer for the Reagan administration from New Jersey -- as the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a moderate swing vote on the court.\nAll but one of the Senate's majority Republicans voted for his confirmation, while all but four of the Democrats voted against Alito. Republican Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island voted no and Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia voted yes.\nThat is the smallest number of senators in the president's opposing party to support a Supreme Court justice in modern history. Chief Justice John Roberts got 22 Democratic votes last year, and Justice Clarence Thomas -- who was confirmed in 1991 on a 52-48 vote -- got 11 Democratic votes.\nBush and Alito watched the vote together in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Bush shook Alito's hand and aides erupted in a long round of applause when final approval came.\nWith the confirmation vote, O'Connor's resignation became official. She resigned in July but agreed to remain until her successor was confirmed. She has been at the court this week, and participated in one last appeal Tuesday. She voted with the other eight justices to refuse to block a Florida execution. She begins teaching a class at the University of Arizona law school later in the week.\nA court spokeswoman would not say if O'Connor attended the swearing-in ceremony.\nUnderscoring the rarity of a Supreme Court justice confirmation, senators answered the roll by standing one by one at their desks as their names were called, instead of voting and leaving the chamber. Alito and Roberts are the first two new members of the Supreme Court since 1994.\nAlito is a longtime federal appeals judge, having been confirmed by the Senate by unanimous consent on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on April 27, 1990. Before that, he worked as New Jersey's U.S. attorney and as a lawyer in the Justice Department for the conservative Reagan administration.\nIt was his Reagan-era work that caused the most controversy during his three-month candidacy for the high court.\nAlito replaces O'Connor, the court's first female justice and a key moderate swing vote on issues like assisted suicide, campaign finance law, the death penalty, affirmative action and abortion.\nCritics who mounted a fierce campaign against his nomination noted that while he worked in the solicitor general's office for President Reagan, he suggested that the Justice Department should try to chip away at abortion rights rather than mount an all-out assault. He also wrote in a 1985 job application for another Reagan administration post that he was proud of his work helping the government argue that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."\nNow, Alito says, he has great respect for the Roe v. Wade decision as a precedent but refused to commit to upholding it in the future. "I would approach the question with an open mind and I would listen to the arguments that were made," he told senators at his confirmation hearing earlier this month.\nDemocrats weren't convinced, with liberals even unsuccessfully trying to rally support to filibuster Alito on Monday. "The 1985 document amounted to Judge Alito's pledge of allegiance to a conservative radical Republican ideology," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said before the vote.\nThey also repeatedly questioned Alito at his five-day confirmation hearing after he would not discuss his opinions about abortion or other contentious topics. At one point, his wife, Martha-Ann, started crying and left the hearing room as her husband's supporters defended him from the Democratic questioning.\n"To Judge Alito, I say you deserve a seat on the Supreme Court," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.\nWhile many predicted a dramatic showdown -- similar to the filibuster battles and all-night talkathons that happened with Bush's lower court appointments -- it never happened.\nThe GOP's 55-vote majority was enough to ensure confirmation, and it was supported by groups like Progress for America, which said it would spend as much as $18 million on confirmation battles. The 44 Democrats were not able to keep their party unified enough to filibuster Alito despite calls from groups like People for the American Way, the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights and the Alliance for Justice.\nGroups both for and against Alito spent slightly less than $2.5 million on advertising. That's nearly double the amount spent on Roberts' nomination, said the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law and the Justice at Stake Campaign.\nAlito was not the White House's first choice -- or even second choice -- for the Supreme Court. Bush picked Roberts when O'Connor first announced she was stepping down last year.\nWhen Roberts was promoted to the top spot after Chief Justice William Rehnquist died, the White House again passed over Alito for the vacant seat, instead selecting White House counsel Harriet Miers.\nMiers' withdrawal following a barrage of conservative criticism in late October prompted Alito's nomination and some liberal complaints that he would be beholden to conservatives.\n"I am who I am. I'm my own person. And I'm not like any other justice on the Supreme Court now or anybody else who served on the Supreme Court in the past," Alito said at his confirmation hearing.