Alito Steps Carefully Before Senators

High Court Nominee Walks Tightrope On Abortion, Presidential Powers

(CBS/AP) 
Alito also has been criticized by some as too likely to favor those in authority, including the president.

When asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy on Tuesday whether a chief executive could "override the laws and immunize illegal conduct," he responded: "No person in this country is above the law. And that includes the president and it includes the Supreme Court,"

Alito sidestepped a follow-up question about the recent disclosure that Bush authorized some wiretaps without warrants as part of the war on terror. The issue "is very likely to result in litigation in the federal courts. It could be in my court. It certainly could get to the Supreme Court," he said.

More broadly, Alito said the Bill of Rights "applies at all times. And it's particularly important that we adhere to the Bill of Rights in times of war and in times of national crisis, because that's when there's the greatest temptation to depart from them."

The former Reagan administration lawyer and federal prosecutor had scarcely settled into his seat when Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., asked about a 1985 memo in which Alito wrote that the Constitution did not provide a right to an abortion.

"Well, that was a correct statement of what I thought in 1985 from my vantage point in 1985, and that was as a line attorney in the Reagan administration," Alito replied, adding it also reflected his own belief.

Also on abortion, he defended his dissent in a 1991 case in which he voted to uphold a Pennsylvania law requiring women seeking abortions to notify their husbands. But he said at least twice during the day he had "no agenda" to erase abortion rights, citing his rulings in two other cases as evidence.

Given the strong possibility of a party-line vote in committee, it seemed at times that Alito was testifying at two parallel hearings. Democrats peppered him with questions about his rulings in cases involving civil rights, presidential power, criminal cases and more. Republicans often invited him to defend his actions and rulings of the past.

Leahy first mentioned Alito's membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a group that opposed admission of increased numbers of women and minorities.

"I really have no specific recollection of that organization," Alito said, although he did not dispute that he belonged to it.

Moments later, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, returned to the issue.

"Let me just ask you directly, on the record, are you against women and minorities attending colleges?"

"Absolutely not, Senator. No," he replied.

Said Hatch, "You know, I felt that that would be your answer. I really did."

Hatch also asked about Vanguard in what Republican officials said was an attempt to pre-empt Democrats. But it was Feingold several hours later who pressed Alito into conceding he did not know whether he had ever told officials at the appeals court to place Vanguard and other entities on a list of cases he should avoid.

Outside the committee rooms, senators of both parties offered differing assessments of the proceedings.

"I think Judge Alito went farther than Chief Justice Roberts did" in discussing abortion, said Specter, signaling satisfaction with the responses to his questions.

But Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. dissented. "We're going to keep asking questions until we find out specific answers to how he feels about major issues confronting Americans today," he said.

On other issues:

Alito defended his 2004 dissent in which he supported the strip search of a 10-year-old girl, explaining that his interpretation was based on "common sense" that a warrant included searches of anyone on the premises of a drug suspect. He said if police were banned from searching children in the home of a drug dealer, then the drug dealers would hide their drugs on the children.

Despite being pressed by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., Alito said he has "no view" on whether the Supreme Court was right to take the Bush v. Gore case that decided the 2000 presidential election. Kohl suggested this was "extreme judicial activism"; Alito said he never studied the case.

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©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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