Samuel Alito received Senate approval and has been sworn in as the 110th Supreme Court justice.

A majority of U.S. Senators vow they will vote for Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito appears to be headed towards confirmation after days of bitter attacks from Senators.

The hearings to confirm Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito are set to take place beginning January 9th, 2006.

Catholics would have a majority on the Supreme Court for the first time ever if Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is confirmed for the court.  His confirmation would put five Roman Catholics on the bench and end two centuries of Protestant reign.

President Bush has nominated Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.

"Judge Alito .... has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years," Bush said, drawing an unspoken contrast to his recent choice, Harriet Miers.

Abortion emerged as a potential fault line. Democrats pointed to Alito's rulings that restricted a woman's right to abortion. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Republican who supports abortion rights, said that Alito's views on the hot-button issue "will be among one of the first items Judge Alito and I will discuss."  

Profile of Samuel Alito, Jr.

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers has withdrawn her nomination for the lands highest court.

Under withering attack from conservatives, President Bush abandoned his push to put loyalist Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court and promised a quick replacement Thursday. Democrats accused him of bowing to the "radical right wing of the Republican Party."

The White House said Miers had withdrawn because of senators' demands to see internal documents related to her role as counsel to the president. But politics played a larger role: Bush's conservative backers had doubts about her ideological purity, and Democrats had little incentive to help the nominee or the embattled GOP president.

Miers' withdrawal means the justice she was chosen to replace, Sandra Day O'Connor, will delay her retirement further. O'Connor has been a swing voter on numerous emotional social issues, and more are set to come before the Supreme Court, including two abortion cases this fall.   

Text of Miers' resignation letter.

Friends of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers say she will overturn the landmark abortion case of Roe v Wade.

President Bush has picked Harriet Miers to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.

The White House is describing the nominee as "a woman of many firsts," including being one of the first staff members to arrive at the White House each morning and among the last to leave. She is known for thoroughness and her low-profile.

Profile of Harriet Ellan Miers

The John Roberts era leading the Supreme Court is underway as the new term opened today with Roberts presiding as Chief Justice of the high court.

John Roberts is set to be confirmed as the 17th chief justice of the Supreme Court. 

John Glover Roberts Jr., backed by a united Senate Republican majority and about half of a divided Democratic minority, is taking his place as the nation's 17th chief justice, to lead the Supreme Court into the 21st century and through turbulent social issues that will affect generations to come.

Roberts was to be confirmed Thursday by at least 77 senators in the GOP-controlled Senate, or more than three-fourths of the 100-member chamber, as President Bush's selection to replace the late William H. Rehnquist. The 50-year-old U.S. appeals court judge then was to be quickly sworn into his new position at the White House so he could take his seat on Monday in time for the new court session where justices will tackle issues like assisted suicide, campaign finance law and abortion.   posted 1:42am by jholmes

John Roberts confirmation for the Supreme Court heads to the Senate floor today.  He is, by all estimates, to be easily confirmed. 

Two-thirds of the 100 senators — Republican and Democrats alike — had already announced their support of the conservative federal appeals court judge as the successor to the late William H. Rehnquist before the Senate even started its final debate Monday afternoon.  

The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted 13-5 to approve Chief Justice nominee John Roberts.  The full Senate will vote on Monday. 

Roberts won the support of all 10 Republicans on the committee and three Democrats — Ranking Minority Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, both of Wisconsin. 

Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid says he will vote against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts.

Nominee Roberts gains respect, if not even more converts. 

Text transcripts of today's nomination hearings:

• Hearing 1

• Hearing 2

• Hearing 3

• Hearing 4

Nominee John Roberts is being pressed hard today in his confirmation hearing on the abortion hot button.

John Roberts vowed yesterday to be a fair and humble justice. 

He added, "Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them." 

Hearings for Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee John Roberts are set to begin today.

Supreme Court justices, a Supreme Court nominee, and the rest of Washington is paying its respects to the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist today.

President Bush has nominated John Roberts, who he has already nominated for the Supreme Court, to fill Chief Justice William Rehnquist's robe.  It is a move that many thought Bush would do and a necessary move if the court is to open its October session on time with a Chief Justice in place.

It has been over 50 years since a Chief Justice died in office.

Reactions of fellow justices on the Supreme Court.

New York Times obituary of William Rehnquist.

Quotes about Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

President Bush has many options for who should be the new Chief Justice to replace William Rehnquist.  The most likely scenario is the refilling of paperwork so that John Roberts could fill the spot.  Roberts was nominated by Bush to fill Sandra Day O'Connor's robe, but has yet to be confirmed by Congress.

"Renominating Roberts (as chief justice) is among the most likeliest scenarios," said Brad Berenson, a White House lawyer during Bush's first term and a former Supreme Court clerk. "There is one and only one way that the court can start the new term in October with a chief justice in place and all nine seats filled and that is if the president switches Roberts over to be the nominee for chief."

Bio of Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist passed away last night.  Rehnquist was 80-years-old.  He had been ill for a long time with thyroid cancer.  His death creates the second Supreme Court vacancy for President Bush to fill.  Statement from the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, a White House lawyer for Ronald Reagan at the time, raised his concerns about Michael Jackson way back in 1984 at the height of Jackson's popularity.

On April 30, 1984, Roberts wrote to oppose a presidential award that was to have been given to Jackson for his efforts against drunk driving. Roberts particularly objected to award wording that described Jackson as an "outstanding example" for American youth.

Roberts wrote: "If one wants the youth of America and the world sashaying around in garish sequined costumes, hair dripping with pomade, body shot full of female hormones to prevent voice change, mono-gloved, well, then, I suppose 'Michael,' as he is affectionately known in the trade, is in fact a good example. Quite apart from the problem of appearing to endorse Jackson's androgynous life style, a Presidential award would be perceived as a shallow effort by the President to share in the constant publicity surrounding Jackson. . . . The whole episode would, in my view, be demeaning to the President."      

The American Bar Institute has given Supreme Court nominee John Roberts very high marks as 'well qualified.' 

This is the fourth time the ABA has rated Roberts. He was designated as well qualified in 2001 when he was nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He earned the same rating in 2003 when he was nominated again for the appeals courts and then confirmed. He was rated as qualified as an appeals court nominee in 1992, but the Senate never took up that nomination.

Desperate:  CNN agrees to air false bloody abortion ad that attacks Supreme Court nominee John Roberts.  Read more Bumpshack Supreme Court Coverage.

Supreme Court nominee John Roberts has vowed to honor established rulings by the Court.

Former Tennessean Senator and current actor Fred Thompson is in the Capitol giving his advice to Bush Supreme Court nominee John Roberts and guiding him through the process with combative Democratic Senators and others.

Report shows that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts has used judicial restraint in prior decisions from the bench and Justice Department.Hillary aide claims Clinton will confirm Bush Supreme Court pick John Roberts unless something unforeseen occurs.

Many Americans are eager to know John Roberts position on abortion.

Bush touts credentials of his High Court nominee.

10 landmark Supreme Court decisions.

John Roberts appears to be such a great choice for the Supreme Court that the opposition is dumbfounded in how to attack him or his ideals.

Upon meeting Roberts -- I worked with him in the Reagan and first Bush administrations -- one is immediately impressed by the warmth of his personality and his complete interest in you. His pleasant manner is matched, or exceeded, by his intelligence, which manifests itself not in showy or know-it-all pretension, but in a great capacity to listen, and therefore understand, the most complex matters.

Nominee John Roberts donated money to the campaign of republican senator Richard Lugar who will now vote on his confirmation in the upcoming weeks. 

Roberts, who grew up in Indiana, gave $500 to the 2000 re-election bid of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., according to campaign contribution reports.

Roberts making rounds in the Congress to let himself be known. 

Retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is praising President Bush's selection to replace her on the court.

"I have watched Judge Roberts since he has been an advocate before our court, and I and my colleagues have been enormously impressed with his scholarship and his skills," O'Connor said in an interview Wednesday during the annual conference of the 9th U.S. Circuit in Spokane. "He's earned an excellent reputation as a lawyer, so I think he's very well qualified."

"I am disappointed, in a sense, to see the percentage of women on our court drop by 50 percent, but I can't be disappointed in the quality of person nominated. He's first rate," she added.