Date: January 12, 2006
Senator: Coburn
Topic:
Contents
Senator Coburn?
COBURN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I've been listening. I was not here for all of it, but I was paying attention by the video screen in the back room. And just some observations.
You know, I live on Capitol Hill with two Democrats. And the thing that's normally asked of them is how can you live with that guy. You know? And their answer is you don't know his heart. And then I get asked the same thing. How can you live with those two guys? And I say you don't know his heart.
And it strikes me as I look at this panel, the three people who testified favorably for Judge Alito know him. And the three people who didn't testify, who testified somewhat negatively about Judge Alito don't know him. They've read some of his cases, not all of his cases.
And so, it just kind of strikes me that one of the most valuable pieces of information that this committee has gotten from outside witnesses was the judge panel that came before you, the people that have worked with him for over a decade, worked with him in a closed room. I believe they know his heart. And I believe anyone in this room you can take anything that we've written at some time or said at some time and you can make each of us look terrible. And I would just -- I only have really one question. And that's for Professor Liu.
How do you explain the fact that Judge Lewis, who is adamant about Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act, his observations about Judge Alito are completely contrary to yours? How do you explain that? Here's a guy that knows him. Here's a guy that has very liberal leanings in terms of the political spectrum. Here's a guy that is basing his whole legal career on civil rights. And yet he says I know this man, and there's not a bit of truth in any bias or any direction that he goes. How do you explain that?
LIU: Well, Senator Coburn, I certainly can't dispute Judge Lewis' account or views on Judge Alito. I understood the previous panel to be testifying to the integrity and intellectual honesty of the nominee, none of which I dispute. In fact, I conceded in the very first sentence of my testimony that I find him also to be an intellectually honest person.
My only viewpoint, I guess, that I'm offering is not really a viewpoint at all. What I'm trying to simply urge is that some attention be paid to his record and that the record speaks for itself. And it doesn't speak to the nominee's intellectual -- any negatives regarding the nominee's intellectual honesty. Rather, I think, it speaks more to the set of values or instincts or the intangible qualities of judging, I think, that every judge, every human being brings into the world.
It is not that any judge decides to go about any case saying I come in with this bias or I come in with that bias. I grant that Judge Alito, like every judge, tries to be impartial. But every judge also has a set of instincts, a central tendency. And I think it can be revealed, not definitively, but it can be revealed by looking at patterns across large numbers of cases.
COBURN: And you looked at 50 cases of his? Is that correct?
LIU: Well, I've actually looked at more, but the cases that I've...
COBURN: How many more? How many more?
LIU: I've probably looked at 60 or 70 cases.
COBURN: Out of 4,000?
LIU: Out of the 360 that he's written.
COBURN: Written opinions on, but he still has adjudicated over 4,000 cases.
LIU: Certainly, that is true.
COBURN: All right.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Contents
Prev
Next
Last
