Date: January 12, 2006
Senator: Witness - Tucker
Topic:
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LEAHY: And lastly, on the issue of CAP, nobody is suggesting a bias on his part. But what bothers me, while you're doing a job application in 1985, we know Judge Alito's a very careful person, and I mean that as a compliment -- carefully put together job application. He proudly proclaims his membership in CAP, a group that was very much dedicated to keeping minorities and women out of Princeton: one that would probably look unkindly to either Judge Alito's Italian ancestors or my Italian ancestors.
LEAHY: Was this just pandering to the Meese and the Reagan administration, or is this just a total screw-up?
TOBER: May I defer to Ms. Tucker with that?
LEAHY: Sure.
TUCKER: We looked at that question, Senator. We were very concerned about that listing, knowing that membership in that organization would put him, perhaps, on an extreme that we would be uncomfortable with.
His answers to our committee were very similar, if not identical, to the answers to your committee. He did not recall when he became a member or even what he did. He didn't recall ever attending any meetings or reading any publications.
He did recall that he joined the organization because of the university's attempt to remove ROTC.
LEAHY: But that's not really my question. Was there any question of why was he so proud of this that he would put it in 1985 when everybody -- everybody knew what kind of an organization it was, where Senator Bill Frist had condemned it and Senator Bill Bradley -- quite the extreme political poles I suppose you might go.
LEAHY: Did you ask why he proudly put that on his...
TUCKER: We asked him why he put that on there. We didn't ask him why he proudly put that on there.
But he stated that he recalled he was a member.
We specifically asked him if this was to -- since it was a job application, that was he pandering. And he said it would be improper to not tell the truth on an application, that he was a member of that organization.
But there were only two organizations that he listed, as I recall, on that application. One was the Federalist Society. The other was the Concerned Alumni for Princeton. He did not have a long list of activities at that time.
But I should say, in fairness, we were very concerned about the membership of that and what happened. And all of the people we spoke to on the courts, women and minorities, people who he had worked with, people who had sat on panels with him side by side in issuing judicial opinions, almost universally said that they saw no bigotry, no prejudice.
TUCKER: They thought he was a fair man. And they felt that if he did put that -- they were shocked when they heard that that was listed on his application. And they said, "That is not the Sam Alito we know." And we heard that time and time again.
LEAHY: Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
SPECTER: Thank you very much, Mr. Tober.
Thank you, Ms. Tucker.
Thank you, Mr. Payton.
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