ACLJ Demands Judiciary Committee Vote on Alito

This morning I have been on the phone with our Government Affairs staff and our lawyers working on the nomination of Sam Alito to the Supreme Court of the United States.  We are calling upon the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote tomorrow as scheduledto confirm Judge Alitoand urge the full Senate to give the nomination an up-or-down vote by the end of this week.  It is time for this process to conclude with an up-or-down vote on Judge Alito without any further delays.  I expressed my concern last week that the political process involved here is such that the impact on Supreme Court cases could well be affected.  It is time for this process to conclude. 

The fact is that Judge Alito is not only well qualified for a seat on the Supreme Court, but he deserves an up-or-down vote on this nomination without further political stonewalling.  With the Judiciary Committee poised for tomorrows confirmation vote, it is important that the full Senate give proper consideration and speedy action on Judge Alitos confirmationand that means an up-or-down vote by the end of the week.  It is unfortunate that this nominee has been subjected to a political tug-of-war that resulted in detours and delay. 

Right now, it looks like Judge Alito has the necessary votes to be confirmed as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.  However, we are continuing to gather momentum in order to ensure that the vote actually takes place on his confirmation.  The Senate needs to act now.  If you have not yet joined with us in this important challenge, please click here to sign on to our petition or send it to your friends to add their names as well.

I also want to mention that the Supreme Court has held the partial-birth abortion case once again.  At this point, I believe that the Court is going to wait until Judge Alito is confirmed to the Supreme Court in order to vote whether to hear the case.  I anticipate once he is confirmed, they will vote to hear it.  That will make the partial-birth abortion case the major pro-life case of the last ten years.  For updated information, check out our website at www.aclj.org.