Kyl's opening Alito statement

Below is the opening statement of Senator Jon Kyl, R-AZ, as prepared for delivery at the confirmation hearing for Judge Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court.

Welcome, Judge Alito, to your confirmation hearing.

At the outset, I'm pleased to note that you have more judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years.

Indeed, only one Supreme Court justice in history, one Horace Lurton, nominated by President Taft, had more federal appeals court experience.

Moreover, you've devoted virtually your entire professional life to public service, and the nation owes you gratitude for that service.

I look forward to a dignified hearing followed by a fair up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.

Before discussing your nomination, I'd like to take a moment to express my respect and admiration for the justice whom you're nominated to replace, my fellow Arizonan, Sandra Day O'Connor, whom I've known for more than 30 years.

Justice O'Connor has served with great distinction during her career in the Arizona legislature, on the Arizona Court of Appeals and for what has been a quarter of a century on the United States Supreme Court.

Arizonans are deeply proud of Justice O'Connor's service to this country. She will always be remembered by Arizonans and all Americans as an extraordinary public servant.

Judge Alito, I'd like to discuss your background and experience in the context of other justices on the Supreme Court so that everyone understands how well you satisfy what we have come to expect from our top judges.

Like all the sitting justices, you had an outstanding education. One of your classmates at Yale Law School, Tony Kronman, who later went on to be the dean of the law school and could I believe fairly be described as a political liberal has recently remarked, and I quote, "He impressed me," speaking of you, "as being more interested in the technical, intellectual challenges of the law and its legal reasoning than its political uses or ramifications."

Thus, even in your early 20s, it appears you were focused on the law as an independent pursuit, rather than using law to influence political ends.

With your intellect and education, you could have become a wealthy attorney, but instead you devoted virtually all of your legal career to the public service.

In doing so, you meet and even exceed the stellar examples set by Justices Thomas and Souter, each of whom devoted most of their pre-judicial careers to public service.

Perhaps this is because, like Justices Ginsburg and Scalia, you had a father who was an immigrant to this nation. It seems that immigrants often have a special understanding of the incredible opportunities that this nation affords its citizens.

Moreover, your father's long service to the people of New Jersey, both as a school teacher and as a civil servant in the state legislature, plainly served as a model for you.

I also note that you served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1972 until 1980. If confirmed, only you and Justice Stevens would have any military experience. You would also be the first Supreme Court justice to have served in the Army reserve since Justice Frank Murphy did so during World War II.

You've spent much of your career as a federal prosecutor, pursuing terrorists, mob kingpins, drug dealers and others who threaten our safety and our security. Justice Souter had a distinguished career as a state prosecutor, but no justice sitting justice has served as a federal prosecutor. Again, this experience could prove helpful, given that approximately 40 percent of the Supreme Court docket involves criminal matters.

You also served as attorney in the executive branch. Like Chief Justice Roberts, you served in the Solicitor General's Office representing our government before the Supreme Court. And like Justice Scalia, you served in the Office of Legal Counsel, providing constitutional advise to the president and to the rest of the executive branch.

In both of these roles, your job was to advance the policies of a president who twice won an electoral college landslide. He set the agenda and you helped him implement it.

Similarly, Justice Thomas served Presidents Reagan and Bush in political legal capacities, and Justice Breyer also worked in political jobs, both in President Johnson's Justice Department and as a lawyer to this committee.

I note that you were just 39 when nominated to serve on the 3rd Circuit. Justice Kennedy was only 38 when nominated to the 9th Circuit, and Justice Breyer only 42 when nominated to the 1st Circuit. Like them, you now have a great deal of hands-on experience that you can bring to the court for years to come.

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