OxfordPress.com

No vote on new justice till January

Washington — The Senate Judiciary Committee announced Thursday it will hold hearings Jan. 9 on Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, with an eye toward a full Senate confirmation vote by Jan. 20.

President Bush had urged the Senate to confirm Alito before the end of the year, but the chairman of the committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), said that would be impossible given the task of reviewing Alito's voluminous record of public service.

In 15 years as a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Alito has written an estimated 300 rulings and participated in roughly 1,500 cases, much of which Senate Democrats want to examine before deciding how to vote on his nomination.

And the National Archives said Thursday it would take several weeks to locate Alito-related documents at the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

The scheduling agreement came on the day a bipartisan group of 14 senators who averted a political Armageddon over judicial nominees last summer met to decide whether to try to keep the peace over Alito.

"We are united in a wait-and-see approach," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a leader of the so-called "Gang of 14," said after the group's meeting.

At least two Republicans in the group, Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Mike DeWine of Ohio, indicated before the meeting that they would oppose any attempt by Democrats to filibuster the nomination. But Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) insisted that a spirit of cooperation continues to hold the group together. "The gang is not breaking up, so we'd like to put that rumor to bed," he said.