From the Associated Press via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Alito gets boost from Bush before hearing," by Jesse J. Holland--
President Bush sent Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito off to his confirmation hearings Monday with best wishes and a demand that senators "give this man a fair vote and an up or down vote."
Alito was facing close questioning by the Judiciary Committee to determine his fitness to be the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice. But first, he got some last-minute encouragement from the president over breakfast at the White House.
Speaking to reporters afterward, the president called Alito "eminently qualified" to be on the high court and said he told the judge that "he's conducting himself with such dignity and class."
--Posted by Illinois Bextra attorney T. Evan Schaeffer of the Illinois personal injury firm of Schaeffer & Lamere, P.C.
Alito doesn’t have much use for the Bill of Rights’ Fourth Amendment, guaranteeing freedom from unwarranted searches and seizures and fair trials. For example, he argued that police had a right to strip-search a 10-year-old girl (and her mother) while carrying out a search warrant that only authorized the search of a man and his home. Did I hear someone say “Gestapo tactics”?
Posted by: heavy equipment | January 10, 2006 at 08:51 PM