Arlen Specter: “I urge my colleagues to invoke cloture on the nomination of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court and to support him on the…”

“I urge my colleagues to invoke cloture on the nomination of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court and to support him on the final vote. As the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I sat through every minute of the proceedings, reviewed in advance some 250 cases of Judge Alito's, his work in the Justice Department, his work as U.S. Attorney, as Assistant U.S. Attorney, his academic record, and I found him to be eminently well qualified. The objections which have been raised to the nomination turn on those who think he should have been more specific on answering certain questions. But to have been more specific, he would have had to in effect state how he would rule on cases to come before the Court, and that is going too far. He went about as far as he could go. With the critical question of women's right to choose, his testimony was virtually identical to Chief Justice Roberts, and he affirmed the basic principles of stare decisis, a Latin phrase which means ``let the decision stand.'' He is not an originalist. He characterized the Constitution as a living document, as Cardozo did, reflecting the values of our country, the importance of the reliance on precedent, and articulated those views. He also indicated that he had an open mind on the issue of a woman's right to choose, notwithstanding what he had done in an advocacy role for the Department of Justice, notwithstanding any views he had expressed at an earlier date.…”