MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy said Thursday he would vote against the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a speech in Washington, Leahy said that during Alito’s confirmation hearings last week the federal appeals court judge showed he would not serve as an effective check on presidential power.
“This is a fundamental question for me as I consider this nomination,” Leahy said. “It is also a fundamental question for the Senate and for this country at a time when we have a president prone to unilateralism and arrogant assertions of executive power that range all the way up to illegal spying on Americans.”