It's Alito!

The rumors were actually on target this time, as there was more buzz about Alito than any other potential nominee. No word on whether or not that was merely a coincidence.

Here's a quick rundown of some of the basics:

• Born 1950.
• Graduated Princeton, 1972.
• Law Degree from Yale, 1975.
• Served as editor for the Yale Law Journal.
• Clerked for Leonard Garth on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Served as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the appelate level, 1977-1980.
• Served as Assistant Solicitor General, 1981-1985.
• Served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel (which had previously been headed by Rehnquist and Scalia), 1985-1987.
• Served as U.S. Attorney for the New Jersey District, 1987-1989, handling prosecution of white collar crime, organized crime, drug trafficking, violations of civil rights, and other cases. He was unanimously confirmed for the position by the Senate.
• Nominated to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals by George H.W. Bush in 1990, he was unanimously confirmed by voice vote, and won unanimous support from the Sneate Judiciary Committee (the Senate was under the control of Democrats at the time, I should add).
• From his positions as Assistant U.S. Attorney and Assistant Solicitor General, he argued a dozen cases before the Supreme Court and over two dozen on the Circuit Court level, in addition to handling another fifty cases.
• Member of the Federalist Society.

Sounds like a great nomination to me. Confirmation by the end of the year would be nice, but between efforts by Democrats to delay and Congress's desire to break for various holidays remaining on the year's calendar, a final vote may not occur until January. December is still possible, though. I note that John Roberts was confirmed two months to the day from his nomination (his nomination to fill O'Connor's seat, that is; while they were technically seperate nominations, it makes more sense to look at them as a single nomination for such purposes).

Democrats are not thrilled about this nomination; I expect a big fight from them. Their fight against Roberts was notable, but not as big as most thought it would be; their fight against Miers was there, but it was mostly in the background as they let Republicans argue amongst themselves (had Miers come for a vote, she almost certainly would have received fewer votes from the Democrats than Roberts did). Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) has come out saying that he opposes Alito, and warned the president against nominating him, but Reid opposed Roberts, so it's not like anybody had any reasonable expectation of Reid supporting any Bush nominee. Keep that in mind when you see statements from Reid, Ted Kennedy (MA), Charles Schumer (NY), Hillary Clinton (NY), Diane Feinstein (CA), and several other prominent Democrats.

I also note that, properly speaking, this is the third nominee for the O'Connor seat; it rather rare to have three nominees for a position before getting one confirmed. While Reagan announced three different names for the Powell seat in 1987, only two were official nominees (Bork was defeated, Douglas Ginsburg withdrew before his nomination was officially submitted after it was revealed that he had tried marijuana, and Kennedy was eventually nominated and confirmed). Nixon nominated three to the Fortas seat in 1969/1970, with Haynsworth and Carswell being defeated before Blackmun was confirmed (actually, if you want to get highly technical about it, Johnson nominated Thornberry to the seat in 1968 when he nominated Fortas to Warren's spot as Chief Justice; however, Fortas was withdrawn, making that a moot nomination, so there were technically four nominations to Fortas's seat). Grover Cleveland, in his role as 24th President (not 22nd), made four nominations (but only three different nominees (boy, that sounds oddly familiar)) to the Blatchford seat; he nominated Hornblower, but Congress spent enough time out of session that his nomination lapsed and he had to be re-nominated, at which point he was rejected, as was the following nominee, Peckham, before White was confirmed (on the very day he was nominated, no less). Grant made three nominations to succeed Chase as Chief Justice, with Williams and Cushing withdrawing before Waite was confirmed. Fillmore and Pierce combined for four nominees to the McKinley seat with two of the Fillmore nominations lapsing (one because his term as president/the congressional term ended) and Pierce successfully nominating Campbell the month he took office. The interesting part comes in with John Tyler, not well liked by Congress, nominating six men to the Thompson seat and combining with Polk to nominate five to the Baldwin seat. The Thompson seat nominations included three withdrawals, a rejection, and one on which no action was taken (who was later renominated and withdrawn) and Tyler nominating two men in one day. The Baldwin seat included a postponement who was later renominated and withdrawn, a no action, and a rejection before a confirmation. Madison needed four attempts to name Cushing's successor, having a rejection and two nominees declining (including John Quincy Adams) before getting Joseph Story confirmed. The last instance, finally, was George Washington needing three nominations to follow John Jay as Chief Justice; he recess-appointed John Rutledge, who had previously served as an Associate Justice, but was rejected by the Senate, then the above-mentioned Cushing, who declined the elevation, before finally getting Oliver Ellsworth confirmed (interesting note: John Jay was actually nominated by John Adams to follow Ellsworth as Chief Justice, but he declined the nomination, making the way for John Marshall (lots of Johns there)). So this is the ninth time there have been at least three nominees, not counting the Powell seat (as that was officially two), but only the second time in the last 110 years.

When I started that list, I had no idea that it would be so long. So very, very long.