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Samuel Alito Nominated to Supreme Court; New Orleans Police Officer Reflects on Katrina

Aired October 31, 2005 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: We are awaiting for breaking news from the president right at 8 a.m. And we are two seconds away to make the announcement. And then, of course, that is not who we saw for just a moment. That was not President Bush.
JEFF TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: If we could maybe punch up the picture for just a minute of where the announcement is going to be. It is even a different part of the White House than the Harriet Miers announcement.

S. O'BRIEN: It's being held in something called the Cross Room -- Cross Hall?

TOOBIN: I don't recognize it. I've been in the White House many times. I don't recognize it.

S. O'BRIEN: The Cross Halls, which I guess is literally a section of the White House that's in between two halls.

TOOBIN: Right. And if you remember that somewhat awkward appearance with Harriet Miers was inside the Oval Office. They are even going to have a different photograph that will appear.

S. O'BRIEN: It's all different. It's a message. It's totally different.

TOOBIN: Sure, that is a very different -- that is a different part of the White House, different picture. That's the message.

S. O'BRIEN: We're getting word from the White House that we're just 90 seconds away from hearing from the president.

Welcome to everybody who is joining us right at 8. We're waiting for President Bush to make his announcement about his choice for the Supreme Court.

Dana Bash is at the White House for us this morning. Candy Crowley joining us, as well, and we've got Jeff Toobin sitting right next to me.

Dana, in just a few seconds, what are you hearing from the White House now?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're hearing that the president is going to do exactly what the White House had hoped they would start this week with, essentially a reset button, trying to start over.

Last week, many people around here called the week from hell. So it is not an accident that at 8 a.m. on Monday morning, and try to start -- restart the debate over one of the biggest debacles of his presidency so far, and that is having to withdraw a nominee from a Republican controlled Senate.

S. O'BRIEN: Candy, in the few moments that -- that pass as we wait for the president to come out, and I may interrupt you -- oops, I'm going to interrupt you right now, because here he is. Let's listen to President Bush making his announcement.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning.

I'm pleased to announce my nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Judge Alito is one of the most accomplished and respected judges in America. And his long career in public service has given him an extraordinary breadth of experience.

As a Justice Department official, federal prosecutor and judge on the United States Court of Appeals, Sam Alito has shown a mastery of the law, a deep commitment of justice, and he is a man of enormous character.

He is scholarly, fair-minded and principled, and these qualities will serve our nation well on the highest court of the land.

Judge Alito showed great promise from the beginning in studies at Princeton and Yale Law School, as editor of the "Yale Law Journal," as a clerk for a federal court of appeals judge.

BUSH: He served in the Army Reserves and was honorably discharged as a captain.

Early in his career, Sam Alito worked as a federal prosecutor and handled criminal and civil matters for the United States. As assistant to the solicitor general, he argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court, and has argued dozens of others before the federal courts of appeals.

He served in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, providing constitutional advice for the president and the executive branch.

BUSH: In 1987, President Ronald Reagan named him the United States attorney for the District of New Jersey, the top prosecutor in one of the nation's largest federal districts. And he was confirmed by unanimous consent by the Senate.

He moved aggressively against white collar and environmental crimes, and drug trafficking and organized crime and violation of civil rights.

In his role, Sam Alito showed a passionate commitment to the rule of law, and he gained a reputation for being both tough and fair.

In 1990, President Bush nominated Sam Alito, at the age of 39, for the United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.

BUSH: Judge Alito's nomination received bipartisan support and he was again confirmed by the unanimous consent by the United States Senate.

Judge Alito has served with distinction on that court for 15 years, and now has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years.

Judge Alito's reputation has only grown over the span of his service.

He has participated in thousands of appeals and authored hundreds of opinions. This record reveals a thoughtful judge who considers the legal merits carefully and applies the law in a principled fashion.

BUSH: He has a deep understanding of the proper role of judges in our society. He understands that judges are to interpret the laws, not to impose their preferences or priorities on the people.

In the performance of his duties, Judge Alito has gained the respect of his colleagues and attorneys for his brilliance and decency. He's won admirers across the political spectrum.

I'm confident that the United States Senate will be impressed by Judge Alito's distinguished record, his measured judicial temperament and his tremendous personal integrity. And I urge the Senate to act promptly on this important nomination so that an up-or-down vote is held before the end of this year.

BUSH: Today, Judge Alito is joined by his wife, Martha, who was a law librarian when he first met her. Sam and I both know you can't go wrong marrying a librarian.

Sam and Martha's two children, Phil and Laura, are also with us.

And I know how proud you are of your dad today.

I'm sure, as well, that Judge Alito is thinking of his mom, Rose, who will be 91 in December. And I know he's thinking about his late father. Samuel Alito Sr. came to this country as a immigrant from Italy in 1914. And his fine family has realized the great promise of our country.

Judge, thanks for agreeing to serve. And congratulations on your nomination.

JUDGE SAMUEL A. ALITO JR., SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Thank you very much, Mr. President. I am deeply honored to be nominated to serve on the Supreme Court. And I am very grateful for the confidence that you have shown in me.

The Supreme Court is an institution that I have long held in reverence. During my 29 years as a public servant, I've had the opportunity to view the Supreme Court from a variety of perspectives: as an attorney in the Solicitor General's Office, arguing and briefing cases before the Supreme Court, as a federal prosecutor and, most recently, for the last 15 years, as a judge of the court of appeals.

ALITO: During all of that time, my appreciation of the vital role that the Supreme Court plays in our constitutional system has greatly deepened.

I argued my first case before the Supreme Court in 1982, and I still vividly recall that day. I remember the sense of awe that I felt when I stepped up to the lectern, and I also remember the relief that I felt when Justice O'Connor, sensing, I think, that I was a rookie, made sure that first question that I was asked was a kind one.

I was grateful to her on that happy occasion, and I'm particularly honored to be nominated for her seat.

My most recent visit to the Supreme Court building was on a very different and a very sad occasion. It was on the occasion of the funeral of Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

And as I approached the Supreme Court building with a group of other federal judges, I was struck by the same sense of awe that I had felt back in 1982; not because of the imposing and beautiful building in which the Supreme Court is housed, but because of what the building and, more importantly, the institution stand for: our dedication, as a free and open society, to liberty and opportunity and, as it says above the entrance to the Supreme Court, equal justice under law.

ALITO: Every time that I have entered the courtroom during the past 15 years, I have been mindful of the solemn responsibility that goes with service as a federal judge. Federal judges have the duty to interpret the Constitution and the laws faithfully and fairly, to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans, and to do these things with care and with restraint, always keeping in mind the limited role that the courts play in our constitutional system.

And I pledge that, if confirmed, I will do everything within my power to fulfill that responsibility.

I owe a great deal to many people who have taught me over the years about the law and about judging, to judges before whom I have appeared and to colleagues who have shown me, with their examples, what it means to be a fair and conscientious and temperate judge.

ALITO: I also owe a great deal, of course, to the members of my family.

I wish that my father had lived to see this day. He was an extraordinary man who came to the United States as a young child and overcame many difficulties and made many sacrifices so that my sister and I would have opportunities that he did not enjoy.

As the president mentioned, my mother will be celebrating her 91st birthday next month. She was a pioneering and very dedicated public school teacher who inspired my sister and me with the love of learning.

My wife, Martha, has been a constant source of love and support for the past 20 years.

My children, Philip and Laura, are the pride of my life. And they have made sure that being a judge has never gone to my head. They do that very well on a pretty much daily basis.

ALITO: And my sister, Rosemary, has always been a great friend and an inspiration as a great lawyer and as a strong and independent person.

I look forward to working with the Senate in the confirmation process.

Mr. President, thank you once again for the confidence that you've shown in me and for honoring me with this nomination.

S. O'BRIEN: You've been listening to Judge Samuel Alito just moments after President Bush announced him as his pick with the nomination to the Supreme Court. Justice -- Judge Alito with his wife and his children watching, reminisced briefly, fondly, about his first appearance, his first arguing of a case in the Supreme Court in 1982. And accepting the nomination to the Supreme Court, as you just heard moments ago.

We've got reporters all over this story. So let's get right to them for little look and some analysis, too. We've got Dana Bash at the White House, Candy Crowley for us in our Washington bureau. Ed Henry is on Capitol Hill, and Bill Schneider also in our Washington bureau.

Good morning. Welcome back.

Dana, let's start with you. What happens now out of the White House?

BASH: Well, I think that first in looking and listening to what the president said, there are a couple of things that are absolutely telling about this nominee.

First of all, he started right out of the box talking about his extraordinary breadth of experience, but the most telling comment, Soledad, from the president is how he said that he has more judicial experience than anyone in the last 70 years who's been nominated. That could not be more different from what we heard from this president talking about Harriet Miers. Harriet Miers, the basic line was defending the fact that she had no judicial experience, talking about others who were the same.

So this is somebody who President Bush clearly feels comfortable with. He first interviewed him in June or July, and a senior official said that, had he not decided to go the nonjudicial experience route with Miers, he would have picked Alito from the beginning.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's go right to Candy Crowley. Really, Candy, it was like having someone's resume read to you and a pretty good resume, too.

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'd love to go back and see how long the Harriet Miers introduction was versus this. I suspect this was longer.

Absolutely. But it's not only that. I mean, it's that Princeton-Yale corridor is still intact. And I think what you're going to see, and I know Ed Henry will probably talk about some of the Democratic reaction, but I think what you're going to see is some disappointment that this is obviously a white male replacing a female, leaving just one female on the Supreme Court. We know even the president' wife, prior to all of this, had really pushed for having a woman on the court. So I think there will be some disappointment there.

I think you will see most centrist Democrats holding their fire, saying, "OK, let's -- let's move forward." We saw after Harriet Miers was -- withdrew her nomination, we saw Democrats saying, "Oh, this is terrible. Look what the radical right wing has done. We certainly hope the president won't feel that sort of pressure when he comes up with the next guy." So that's the kind of argument I think we're going to see.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get right to Ed Henry. OK. The next guy, as Candy says, is up. What does the battle look like?

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Candy is absolutely right. She set the stage perfectly. The word I'm hearing over and over from Democrats is "provocative." They basically say the president, A, did not consult with Democrats as he did with Chief Justice John Roberts, as he did before Harriet Miers was nominated. Also that they feel that Judge Alito is more conservative than they expected. They were hoping more of a consensus choice.

This is already opening the door for Democrats to try to make the case that there are extraordinary circumstances here, i.e. that they may filibuster the nominee.

That's why you heard the president immediately say that Judge Alito deserves an up or down vote. That is code for don't filibuster this nominee.

Look at the contrast from Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. The day that Harriet Miers was nominated and came up to the Hill, he was falling all over himself, praising her. He was leaving an open mind on how he would vote but was saying good things about her.

Immediately, a statement put out from Reid this morning, saying he's, quote, "disappointed." Quote, "The Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people." Mentioning right there man, as Candy said, not woman, the man to replace Harriet Miers -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Bill Schneider with some analysis for us this morning. Hey, Bill.

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hi, there Soledad.

Well, we asked the American people what are they looking for? What qualities are essential in a Supreme Court nominee? And the No. 1 quality was experience as a judge, precisely the quality that President Bush called attention to. Fifty percent of Americans said that was essential in the next Supreme Court nominee.

Is it essential that the nominee being be a woman? Only 14 percent said that. There you are: experienced judge. A woman, just 14 percent said that was essential.

How about a conservative? Not much more: 21 percent said it was essential that the nominee be a conservative.

So it's clear that what the president is stressing is this judge's qualifications, his experience. The very big contrast with Harriet Miers here, as opposed to his ideological views, which are going to be, as Ed said, provocative and contentious.

I noticed that a Supreme Court blog, SCOTUS.org, described Judge Alito as grudgingly conservative -- I'm sorry. Grudgingly confirmable. Certainly is conservative. But grudgingly confirmable, meaning Democrats may disagree strongly with his views, but they'd be in a hard position to argue with his qualifications or his credentials.

S. O'BRIEN: So maybe the setting of the reset button, as we've heard, may have worked. Bill Schneider, thank you very much. All our reporters.

Let's get right to Jeff Toobin. What did you make of what the judge now, brand new nominee, had to say?

TOOBIN: Well, I was struck by what he didn't say. He didn't say a word about his judicial philosophy. Even Harriet Miers, in her brief remarks, talked about -- a little bit about how she thought the role of a judge should be. These were all personal recollections about his enormous experience in the federal government.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you -- so what do you take from that? That he's been advised talking points, you know, underscore your experience with a capital "E"?

TOOBIN: I think it indicated to me they are more concerned about the Democrats than the Republicans at this point. They are more concerned about provoking a filibuster than they are about the Republican base.

All of the major conservative groups in the days leading up to this nomination put Samuel Alito on the approved list. They are going to be happy with this nomination.

And I think the White House -- my thought is the White House feels the way to get him confirmed, the way to avoid a filibuster is to focus on his qualifications and his background, the 12 Supreme Court arguments, the 15 years of appellate court experience. That, I think, is what they will focus on at this point, because it is unassailable and really strong.

S. O'BRIEN: He is the opposite of Harriet Miers in a lot of ways. Not the least of which is he's a guy and not a woman. And there was sort of no even discussion about a woman to some degree.

TOOBIN: You know...

S. O'BRIEN: There was such a big focus before Harriet Miers was named.

TOOBIN: There was. And you know, it's such a different world from 1981. When Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981, he went to not even the highest court in Arizona, an intermediate appellate court, to find Sandra Day O'Connor, because there were so few women judges.

Now there are hundreds of women judges around the country. And perhaps there will be some people upset that President Bush couldn't find one to fill this spot, but I can't imagine that is going to be a reason for anyone to vote against this nominee. It is just a fact, and now Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be the only woman on the court, if Samuel Alito is confirmed.

S. O'BRIEN: Right. Jeff, thanks.

TOOBIN: OK.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's see how conservatives are responding to this news. Let's get right to Gary Bauer. He is the president of the conservative American Values organization. He joins us this morning by phone from Washington, D.C.

Thanks for talking with us. What's your reaction this morning?

GARY BAUER, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN VALUES: Well, I think the president hit a grand slam home run here. Judge Alito is very well qualified. Certainly gets over that hump very easily, with the incredible record that he's had.

Beyond that, even though I think there will be people in Congress that will try to pin him as an extremist, he's a mainstream conservative. I think this nomination will have, you know, obviously, a battle, but I'm pretty confident that, at the end of the day, he's going to be confirmed.

S. O'BRIEN: What makes you confident? I mean, we're already hearing that the Democrats are gearing up for a pretty big battle. Why are you confident?

BAUER: Well, because while they'll try to label him an extremist, when you get into the hearings, we're going to get into the specifics. And I think the specifics are the sort of things that most Americans are going to identify with.

Judge Alito, for example, doesn't have a problem if a Christmas tree is displayed on public property. He's unlikely from his past rulings to find a right same sex marriage in the Constitution. Those are things that most Americans agree with, and I think it's going to be very hard for senators like Kennedy and some of the others to paint those positions as being extremist positions.

S. O'BRIEN: You sounded very, very happy, thrilled maybe would be a word you could use, when Harriet Miers withdrew her name from consideration for the Supreme Court. All is forgiven now?

BAUER: Well, you know, it was a tough couple of weeks for Mrs. -- Ms. Miers and a couple of tough weeks for the president. But I think in Washington, you're always going to have battles, and at least now the president is having a battle with his political opponents instead of with his friends. And I'm looking forward to helping in any way I can to get Judge Alito on Supreme Court.

S. O'BRIEN: Which would be doing what exactly?

BAUER: I'm sorry?

S. O'BRIEN: Which would be -- you said you'd help in any way that you can. Doing what?

BAUER: Well, you know, the typical things that people like me do. That is, we'll try to give the grassroots around the country the information they need to be informed in the debate that's going to follow. And we'll certainly give speeches on this and send out e- mails and do all the wonderful things as free Americans that we have a right to do.

S. O'BRIEN: Gary Bauer, the president of the conservative American Values organization. Thanks for talking with us by phone this morning.

And a big thank you to our international viewers who were joining us as we talk -- took, rather, the president's announcement of his choice of Samuel Alito as a Supreme Court nominee.

Let us now get to Miles, because he's in New Orleans, following up two months after Hurricane Katrina.

Hard to believe really, Miles, that it's been two months.

MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Yes, it is hard to believe, Soledad. In some neighborhoods, it's just as it was two months ago. Here on Canal Street, a lot has changed and changed for the better as the city tries to get back on its feet.

When we return, we're going to talk to a police officer about the whole issue of New Orleans police officers who didn't show up in the chaos surrounding Katrina. Forty-five of them were just fired. We'll ask him what he thinks about that coming up on AMERICAN MORNING.

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M. O'BRIEN: Live pictures of Canal Street, city of New Orleans. Nine weeks to the day after Hurricane Katrina hit this city and changed just about everything here.

As you can see, lots of traffic moving down Canal Street this morning. Mostly contractors, cleanup crews, the authorities, military vehicles, that sort of thing. The city may seem on the surface to be headed toward normal, but there is a lot that still needs to be done.

We just have been talking over the past several weeks, really, about the role of the police department and the performance of the police department in the wake of Katrina. Asked to do so many things, these officers were, in spite of the fact that 75 percent of them had homes that were affected by the floods and by the hurricane.

That said, the department has been under fire. There have been allegations of theft in the midst of Katrina. And, of course, most resiliently, that videotaped beating in the French Quarter, which put the department under a harsh light. Most recently, we just heard that 45 officers and six civilians have been fired from the department because they were no-shows during Katrina.

Here to talk about all this is Lieutenant David Benelli. He's head of the union here.

Lieutenant, good to have you with us.

LT. DAVID BENELLI, PRESIDENT, POLICE ASSOCIATION OF NEW ORLEANS: Good morning.

M. O'BRIEN: First of all, let's talk about the 45 officers who were fired. From your perspective, is that good riddance because they don't show up?

BENELLI: You know, Miles, police officers are one of the very few jobs on this earth where you actually raise your right hand and take an oath, and you take an oath to protect and serve this community. And in times of crisis such as a hurricane like this, that's when you're supposed to uphold that oath. And if you don't show up to work, then you've violated that oath, and as far as we're concerned, you're not police officer material and good riddance.

M. O'BRIEN: so these are people that are no-shows, no one has even heard from them. They just dropped off the rolls?

BENELLI: That's correct. They either didn't show up at all or they originally showed up and then (AUDIO GAP) during the storm and haven't been heard from since.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, there a couple of hundred other cases that are being evaluated. People, officers that are potentially facing dismissal but for various reasons may be able to stay. What are the circumstances which would allow them to stay on the job?

BENELLI: Well, I think they're going to look at each case individually and see if there's any mitigating circumstances. I know there's several cases where officers had family members who were in dire need because of medical emergencies. One officer in particular, his wife has multiple sclerosis, and he had to get that -- his wife to a caretaker. They wound up in Houston. So by the time he came back, he was away from his unit for a time.

So I think that's -- I think that you have to look at each individual case before you can just throw a blanket over everybody.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, I mean, certainly in a case like that you want to give somebody the opportunity, a fairly wide berth. Given all the things that have happened here -- it's hard to imagine all the stress -- what is your biggest factor right now, your biggest concern for the officers? Is it the simple issue of housing?

BENELLI: Absolutely: 75 percent of our officers lived in the very areas that were ravaged by flood. They don't have a home to go to. Their families are spread out all over the United States. We have hundreds of police officers right now living in cramped quarters on a cruise ship. Cruises are great for a week or so, but after you're there for a couple of months, it gets kind of old.

These officers need permanent housing. They need to be reunited with their families so they have a regular home life. So they can go out and deal with the misery of the aftermath of the hurricane but yet have a settling family experience to go home at the end of the day.

M. O'BRIEN: Final thought: when you put it altogether, all the things that have happened, the allegations of theft, the beating case, morale -- the housing issue, and the beating, of course, which happened on October 9, in light of all that, in the wake of all that, how is morale here?

BENELLI: Actually, morale is pretty high, considering. Those cases that you point out are very -- just a few isolated case. It doesn't take away from the thousands of officers that go out there every day and valiantly serve this community.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Lieutenant, thank you very much. Lieutenant David Benelli, who heads the union here. We wish you and your officers well as you try to get the city back together -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks.

Ahead this morning, more on that big announcement from the White House. We heard it just minutes ago. Samuel Alito, a judge of 15 years and a New Jersey native, named as nominee, the president's choice to head to the Supreme Court, a career path that took him through Princeton and Yale law schools. Conservatives are cheering, but Democrats are gearing up for a fight. We're got more of that just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

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