O'Connor among topics Alito addresses

On his final day before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito covered new ground as senators conducted a third round of questioning. More witnesses also were set to testify about Alito today.

SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR : Of the justice he would replace, Alito said he would try to emulate "her integrity and her dedication to the case-by-case process of adjudication." Asked by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., whether he would fill O'Connor's role as a centrist on the court, Alito said he will be his own person.

JUDICIAL TERM LIMITS : Alito said that had he been a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, he would have supported lifetime tenure for federal judges, which is the case now, or would have supported long terms "so that the judiciary would be insulated from being swayed by popular opinion."

DEATH PENALTY: Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked Alito whether, as a courtesy, he would sign on as the required fifth person if four other justices vote to stay an execution or hear the case. Alito said that seems to be a "very sensible procedure because I think we all want to avoid the tragedy of having an innocent person executed."

CONGRESS AND THE COURT: Kohl said that in recent years the Supreme Court has struck down more laws than any court in recent memory. Alito responded that he would approach cases involving acts of Congress with a "heavy presumption" that they are constitutional.

DISCRIMINATION: Alito said "I can't think of a reason" why Congress couldn't prohibit employment discrimination against gays and lesbians, although he said he would have to see the arguments.

RIGHT TO DIE: Leahy brought up the controversial case of Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman who suffered a brain injury in 1990 and was at the center of a fierce fight between her husband and family over keeping her alive artificially. Leahy asked whether patients with a living will can designate somebody to speak for them "in a case of terrible injury" or unconsciousness. "Yes, senator," Alito responded, "that's, I think, an extension of the traditional right that I was talking about that existed under common law."

VANGUARD: Senators questioned Alito about his failure to initially recuse himself from a 2002 case involving Vanguard, a mutual fund where he has held six-figure investments. John Payton, federal circuit representative for the American Bar Association, testified that in reviewing the issue the ABA "accepted his explanation that he simply had made a mistake. ... And we think that did not reflect in any significant degree on his integrity."

CONCERNED ALUMNI OF PRINCETON : Alito's membership in the conservative organization that opposed the admission of women and minorities at Princeton University was addressed by Marna Tucker, D.C. circuit representative for the ABA: "... all of the people we spoke to on the courts, women and minorities, people who he had worked with ... almost universally said that they saw no bigotry, no prejudice."