Previous coverage of Supreme Court

Amid bitter split, Senate OKs Alito

Samuel Alito Jr. was sworn in yesterday as the 110th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court after a bitterly divided Senate confirmed him despite anxieties over his views on abortion rights, gun control and presidential power.

Controversial issues will set tone for Alito's term

When Samuel Alito slips on his new black robe later this month, he will face a quick test on how he will rule on two of the most controversial issues before the Supreme Court: the reach of Congress' law-making power and the extent of the president's executive authority.

Dems' filibuster fizzles

Samuel Alito is expected to be confirmed as the Supreme Court's 110th justice today after an improvised, last-ditch filibuster attempt by Senate liberals flopped yesterday.

Alito poised to join Supreme Court

Samuel Alito appeared all but assured of confirmation to the Supreme Court yesterday after the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended his approval on a party-line 10-8 vote.

Shift by court seen as certain

Time and again in his Senate confirmation hearings last week, Samuel Alito insisted that as a justice, he would simply follow the law and the Constitution if confirmed. But most experts believe he will shift the Supreme Court to the right, predictions that are shared by even his most enthusiastic supporters.

Alito confirmation likely

In September, Senate Democrats agonized over their votes as confirmation hearings ended for chief justice nominee John Roberts Jr., who had charmed them with wit and brilliance.

Clashes, tears at Alito's hearing

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito refused yesterday to agree that the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling is settled law and tried to fend off challenges to his credibility for his ties to a controversial and conservative Princeton alumni group.

Democrats pick their battles carefully

Not since the Senate rejected Robert Bork in 1987 has a nominee for the Supreme Court come to confirmation hearings with a statement of opposition to abortion as clear as Samuel Alito's.

Alito plays up humble roots

Samuel Alito has had nearly five years to think about this day, the day on which his opening remarks would set the tone for a week of Senate hearings on his nomination to the Supreme Court.

Dems to attack Alito's credibility at hearings

Senate Democrats signaled yesterday they intend to pursue a two-punch attack in confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito this week, criticizing his conservative judicial philosophy as extreme while questioning his credibility as uncertain.

Alito's 'defining moment' of truth

When Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito faces his Senate confirmation hearings this week, he will have to turn in a performance that fits somewhere between the appearances of John Roberts Jr. and Robert Bork, several experts say.

Alito hearings to focus on presidential power

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's views on the scope of presidential power and the courts' role in checking that power have emerged as a top target for Democrats in next week's Senate confirmation hearings.

Alito's view on wiretaps

As a Reagan administration lawyer in 1984, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito stated that the U.S. attorney general should be protected from any damage lawsuits for ordering illegal warrantless wiretaps.

Green groups to oppose Alito nomination

The Sierra Club and other green groups plan to announce their opposition to Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito in mid-December because of concerns he might undermine Congress' ability to pass environmental laws, according to an internal club memo obtained by Newsday.

Memo outlines Alito's strategy to overturn Roe v. Wade

A newly released 1985 memo outlining a strategy to eventually overturn Roe v. Wade that Samuel Alito wrote as an influential Reagan administration attorney raises new questions about how he might vote on abortion cases as a Supreme Court justice.

Alito went on record on abortion

A memo asserting that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" that Samuel Alito wrote 20 years ago to win a Reagan administration political job has reignited the partisan fight over Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Alito denies ethical slips

WASHINGTON - Responding to nagging ethical questions, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito yesterday defended his decisions as a judge to hear two appeals that involved his investment firms, even though he had said he would avoid such cases.

Democrats vet Alito's link to mutual funds

Highlighting a question of ethics, Senate Democrats yesterday sought details about Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's participation as an appellate judge in a 2002 appeal involving the Vanguard Group mutual funds.

Is he going on faith?

In 1994, when Zachary Hood was a Medford, N.J., kindergartner, he was assigned to draw something he was thankful for at Thanksgiving and turned in a poster depicting Jesus. School officials declined to display it with other work in the hallway because of its religious content.

Alito's judicial ethics questioned in cases

When Judge Samuel Alito failed to remove himself from a 2002 appeal involving the Vanguard companies through which he invests funds, he was breaking a written promise to the Senate - but not for the first time.

Bipartisan group: No rancor

The bipartisan Gang of 14, which averted judicial Armageddon in the Senate last summer, won't be torn apart by internal rancor over Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito, senators predicted yesterday.

Prosecutions dipped during Alito's tenure as U.S. attorney

In Samuel Alito's first year as U.S. attorney for New Jersey in 1987, the number of defendants his office prosecuted plunged 30 percent from the year before, with the biggest drop coming in drug cases, an analysis of federal criminal justice data shows.

Early sign of resistance against Alito

As Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito made his courtesy calls to senators yesterday, Republicans got a preview of what Democrats might do should the conservative jurist's nomination touch off a nuclear meltdown of the Senate.

Both sides fixin' for a fight over Samuel Alito

Republicans and Democrats began preparing for a potentially bruising Senate showdown over the Supreme Court yesterday after President George W. Bush announced his next nominee for associate justice would be the well-known conservative Circuit Judge Samuel Alito.

Alito's views on abortion indicated in '91 case

In February 1991, newly minted federal appeals court judge Samuel Alito sat in judgment of a case that some thought would soon end a woman's legal right to abortion.

COURT NOMINATION

Judge from NJ tops list

Judge Samuel Alito of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in New Jersey is emerging as a leading candidate to be the next nominee for the Supreme Court, conservative activists said yesterday.

Can Bush find the right stuff?

After reluctantly withdrawing Harriet Miers' nomination yesterday, President George W. Bush now begins the task of finding a Supreme Court candidate who is clearly conservative enough to shore up his support from the Republican Party's right wing.

ANALYSIS

Presidential scrape might be tough to heal

For President George W. Bush, it's the political equivalent of tearing off a Band-Aid quickly - pulling Harriet Miers' Supreme Court nomination as the White House braces for possible indictments today.

ANALYSIS

Miers had too many gaffes and missteps

The easiest part of a Supreme Court nominee's job in the confirmation wars is usually the private chats with senators.

Legal experts weigh in on Miers' withdrawal

The withdrawal of Harriet Miers' nomination for U.S. Supreme Court justice could have been rooted in a dispute over executive privilege, some area legal scholars said yesterday.

Miers amends questionnaire

After senators complained her responses to written Senate questions ranged from "incomplete to insulting," Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers yesterday filed an amendment to add her affiliation with a for-profit personnel firm and a nonprofit group, and promised to provide more information.

Miers opposed abortion in '89

Harriet Miers promised in a 1989 candidate questionnaire from Texans United for Life that she would support and work for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion except when necessary to prevent the mother's death.

Miers' slip-ups raise new questions

Responding to written Senate questions yesterday, Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers failed to list among her former business activities her role as a board member and investor in a for-profit human resources firm formed with her evangelical Christian church's minister and his wife.

Schumer unimpressed with Miers after sit-down

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers emphatically denied she's on a secret mission to overturn Roe v. Wade, Sen. Charles Schumer said yesterday after meeting with her and complaining that their discussion left him questioning her constitutional knowledge.

Miers' land had liens

The year Harriet Miers began work as a senior presidential aide in the White House, the city of Dallas slapped three liens in three months on a property she controls in a low-income minority Dallas neighborhood, records show.

Bush's pick faces a revolt by the right

For years conservative and liberal legal groups have been gearing up for the biggest battle over a Supreme Court nomination since 1987, when Robert Bork's appointment was defeated in the Senate.

Bush: Harriet Miers' faith had role in nomination

After days of White House winks implying that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers would be a reliable conservative vote because she is a devout Christian evangelical, President George W. Bush himself yesterday suggested that he picked her in part because of her faith.

Alleged Rove secret riles senators

Senators yesterday demanded disclosure of the secret that top Bush aide Karl Rove told a conservative activist last week to reassure him about Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, but the White House insisted there is no secret to divulge.

Issues are key after all

The outrage among many conservative activists and sullen anger of several Republican senators at President George W. Bush's pick Monday of a Supreme Court nominee whose views on abortion and other social issues are unknown suggests that ideology, after all, does matter, several experts said.

A hint, or perhaps not, of her stand

The closest that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers has come to taking a public position on abortion occurred more than a decade ago, but there is still debate on whether she was acting out of her beliefs or representing her bar association's policy.

Bush: She’s one of us

For many conservative voters, it's the "holy grail," in the words of one activist - a Supreme Court conservative enough to outlaw abortion and hew closely to the Constitution as written.

Religion played a role in her swing to the right

Twelve years ago, Dallas political strategist Jim Francis was looking for a well-known woman to add as ammunition to George W. Bush's campaign to defeat Texas' popular Democratic incumbent woman governor, Ann Richards.

Bush picks from his inner circle

Surprised that President George W. Bush did not select a well-known conservative for a pivotal opening on the Supreme Court yesterday, several Republicans offered muted support for Harriet Miers, and some Democrats claimed an initial victory in the high-stakes battle over the judicial branch.

ANALYSIS

Bush nominates with an eye on the polls

In the end, President George W. Bush blinked.

Miers is a pioneer but untested

As a prominent corporate lawyer in conservative Dallas for 28 years, Harriet Miers was a pioneer for women lawyers. But unlike most recent Supreme Court nominees, she has never had to face the touchstone social issues that come before the court.

Judging Bush's nominee

Few local observers were perturbed that President George W. Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers, has never sported a black robe, and none scoffed at her credentials.