A panel set up to testify at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. From left are, New York attorney Kate Pringle; Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.; San Francisco attorney Jack White; National Bar Association President Reginald Turner Jr.; and NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund President Theodore Shaw. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

Supreme Court Nominee Causes a Lot of Political Disagreements

The nomination for the next Justice to the United States Supreme Court is causing a lot of political disagreements. Many Democrats in the Senate say they may vote against the nomination of Samuel Alito.

Almost all of the 55 Republicans in the Senate are expected to vote for Alito. The Senate has 44 Democrats. Alito would be confirmed if he got more than half of the votes.

The Judiciary Committee of the Senate held four days of hearings on Alito's nomination. The hearings ended January 12.

Alito spent 18 hours over the four days before the committee. He answered about 700 questions. 

The Judiciary Committee has 10 Republican members and eight Democrats. All of the Republicans say they will vote to recommend that Alito be confirmed. Most of the Democrats said they were not sure how they would vote. Many said they were not pleased with Alito's answers.

Alito often refused to say how he would vote on issues, like the president’s powers. He said things he wrote 20 years ago reflected how he felt at the time. He mostly refused to say if he still believed the same way now. 

Alito's nomination will go to the full Senate after the Judiciary Committee votes. The vote in committee was scheduled for January 24th. The full Senate was expected to begin debate on the nomination the next day.

Wisconsin Senators on the Committee

Wisconsin's two Senators are both on the Judiciary Committee. Senators Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl are Democrats. Both said they were not totally pleased with Alito's answers.

Feingold and Kohl said they had not made up their minds how they would vote. But both said they were not sure the Senate would delay the nomination with a move that would keep Senators from voting.  

Alito has been a federal appeals court judge for 15 years. Before that, he was an attorney in the federal government. He worked for the government when Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s. Reagan and Alito were Republicans.

Supreme Court Justices are supposed to give up their political beliefs when they sit on the Court. Justices are supposed to decide cases based on the facts presented in each case. 

Democrats ask forceful questions

Democrats asked tougher questions of Alito than they did last year when John Roberts was nominated to the Court. Roberts also is considered to be conservative, But Roberts was replacing a Justice who was more conservative than Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Alito would replace O'Connor, who is retiring. Many political observers said Democrats were willing to save their greatest opposition for the nominee who would replace O'Connor.

President George Bush nominated Alito to replace Justice O'Connor.

Alito is considered to be more conservative than O'Connor. She is considered to be a moderate.

The Supreme Court has nine Justices. Each of them gets one vote on a court case. Many of the most important cases are decided on 5-to-4 votes.

O'Connor often provided the swing vote in 5-to-4 decisions.

Supreme Court is the most powerful court

Almost all of the cases that come before the court are appealed to the court. That means they were decided in lower federal or state courts. The Supreme Court only holds trials very rarely.

Each of the 50 states has a separate court system.

Each state also has a state Supreme Court. But cases decided in all state courts can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court are final. The Supreme Court is often called "the court of last resort." Some decisions by the court can be changed if Congress later changes the law that was considered by the Court.