... We begin these hearings today at an important time. Less than a month ago, we learned that this Administration has for years been spying on American citizens without a court order and without following the laws passed by Congress. Americans are understandably asking each other whether our government believes it is subject to the rule of law. Now, more than ever, we need a strong and independent judicial branch. We need judges who will stand up and tell the executive branch it is wrong when it ignores or distorts the laws passed by Congress. We need judges who see themselves as custodians of the rights and freedoms that the Constitution guarantees, even when the President of the United States is telling the country that he should be able to decide unilaterally how far those freedoms go.
To win my support, Judge Alito will have to show that he is up to this challenge. His instincts sometimes seem to be to defer to the executive branch, to minimize the ability of the courts to question the executive in national security cases, to grant prosecutors whatever powers they seek, to deny relief to those accused of crimes who assert that their constitutional rights were violated. It will be up to Judge Alito to satisfy the Senate that he can be fair and objective in these kinds of cases. We need judges on the bench who will ensure that the judicial branch of government is the independent check on executive power that the Constitution requires and the American people expect.
In these days of corruption investigations and indictments in Washington, we also need judges who are beyond ethical reproach. In 1990, when he appeared before this Committee in connection with his nomination to the Court of Appeals, Judge Alito promised to recuse himself from cases involving a mutual fund company with which he had substantial investments, Vanguard. He kept those investments throughout his service on the Court of Appeals and still has them today, but in 2002, he sat on a panel in a case involving Vanguard. Since his nomination to the Supreme Court, we have heard different explanations, from the nominee and his supporters, about why he failed to recuse himself. Needless to say, the shifting explanations and justifications are troubling. I hope that we will get the full and final story in these hearings. Before we grant lifetime tenure to federal judges, and particularly justices of the Supreme Court, we must make sure that they have the highest ethical standards ...
http://www.wisdems.org/ht/display/ReleaseDetails/i/724544 
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