Translated material
Good luck for America
Bush protégé named to Supreme Court
Yesterday, the US Senate supported the president's nomination of 55-year-old Samuel Alito as a new member of the Supreme Court. 58 members of the upper house of the American parliament voted for it, 42 voted against it. This marked the end of the renewal of the composition of the highest judicial body of the United States, which dragged on for almost six months.Alito replaced Judge Sandra Day O'Connor, who submitted her resignation in the summer of 2005. O'Connor's vote has more than once proved decisive in cases where liberal and conservative judges could not reach a unanimous decision. Last fall, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court also changed - after the death of 80-year-old William Rehnquist, 51-year-old John Roberts was appointed to this position. He is a supporter of George Bush's policies and is considered an important member of the president's team.
Introducing Alito to senators, George W. Bush noted his high professionalism and called it luck for America that “such a good and humble person is ready to serve it.” Alito served as a judge on the Philadelphia Circuit Court of Appeals for 15 years. He is known for his conservatism and advocates expanding the powers of the executive branch and tightening laws on abortion. On Monday, Democratic senators tried to disrupt the vote, emphasizing that the decision to appoint Alito "will reverberate for years to come."
Many experts see Alito's appointment as evidence of the Supreme Court's final transformation into a Republican stronghold. However, Deputy Director of the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Viktor Kremenyuk, noted to Vremya Novostey that the introduction of this candidacy “only consolidates the trend toward conservatism that has existed in recent years in the American judicial system.” According to the scientist, “this does not mean that Republicans will now be able to manipulate the Supreme Court as they please.” Victor Kremenyuk does not rule out that “the new appointment will play a role” if the situation in 2000 repeats. Then, with an equal number of votes cast for George W. Bush and Al Gore in the presidential election, the conservative-minded Supreme Court ruled to cancel the recount of votes, thereby giving victory to the Republican candidate.