Possible delay seen in vote on US Court pick Alito

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman
Arlen Specter said on Thursday it was unclear whether he could
avoid a possible Democratic delay and get his panel to vote on
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on January 17 as planned.

“Let’s see what happens,” Specter, a Pennsylvania
Republican, said after reports that Democrats on his panel
intended to force a one-week postponement.

Any member of the Republican-led panel has a right to delay
a committee vote for a week. Democrats said no decision had
been on whether to do so but it has always been an option.

Specter’s committee is to begin its confirmation hearing on
Alito on Monday. President George W. Bush nominated him to
replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who often has
been the swing vote on the nine-member court on social issues.

Alito, a 55-year-old conservative who has been a federal
appeals judge since 1990, is widely expected to be confirmed by
the full Senate.

Senate Democrats could slow down the process and prevent
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist from holding a Senate vote,
as now planned, on January 20.

Specter said it had been the “generalized understanding” by
Democratic and Republican leaders that the committee would vote
on Alito on January 17, and send the nomination to the Senate.
“Candidly, that was the expectation,” he said in a statement.

But Democratic aides said there had never been an agreement
to do so, and that forcing a one-week delay remained an option.

Earlier on Thursday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the
nation’s biggest business federation, representing more than 3
million businesses and organizations, endorsed Alito.

“Throughout his career he has shown a great deal of
integrity and a reasoned judicial temperament that would serve
our country well,” said Chamber president Thomas Donohue.

“He has also expressed a belief in the stability and
predictability of the law, which American business relies upon
to plan for the needs of their employees and customers,”
Donohue said in a statement.

Conservative groups have generally backed Alito, while many
largely liberal ones, including the AFL-CIO, the nation’s
largest labor federation with more than nine million members,
have opposed him.