Three top Senate Democrats said today they will vote against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito because they fear he would not provide an effective check to what they described as President George W Bush's bid for expanded power.
While Alito appeared headed toward confirmation by the Republican-led Senate, Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Dick Durbin of Illinois and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts made the case against Mr Bush's 55-year-old conservative candidate.
They expressed concern that if confirmed, Alito, a federal appeals judge since 1990, would push the nation's highest court to the right on a number of fronts, including abortion, civil rights, presidential powers and separation of church and state.
Even if Democrats cannot stop Alito from becoming a Supreme Court Justice, they want to set the stage to make him an issue in November congressional elections, along with Bush's recently disclosed domestic spying program without court warrants.
"I will not lend my support to an effort by this president to move the Supreme Court and the law radically to the right," said Leahy, top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, which plans to vote on Alito's nomination on Tuesday and send it to the full Senate.
"There is no reason to believe that Judge Alito will serve as an effective check and balance on government intrusion," Leahy said in a speech in Washington. "Indeed, his record suggests otherwise."
Durbin, the assistant Senate Democratic leader, said, "Based on his record, I'm concerned that Judge Alito will not be willing to stand up to a president who is determined to seize too much power over our personal lives."
In a speech prepared for delivery in Chicago, Durbin also said, "In case after case, he has voted -- often as the lone dissenter on his court -- against the dispossessed, the poor and the powerless."
Kennedy, the leading liberal voice in Congress, announced his opposition to Alito, declaring, "His record just does not show a judge who is committed to equal justice under law."
If confirmed, Alito would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate conservative who often has been the swing vote on the nine-member court on social issues.
At his confirmation hearing before the Judiciary Committee last week, Alito won praise from Republicans, who noted he received the American Bar Association's top rating for a seat on the high court based on his qualifications, integrity and judicial temperament.
But Democrats were unable to secure a commitment from Alito, who opposed abortion while a Reagan administration lawyer two decades ago, that if confirmed to the Supreme Court he would uphold its 1973 decision that legalized abortion.