Alito Is Pressed on Student Speech, Stance on Affirmative Action Issues

Nominee fields questions on education.

Washington

It took a while for education to squeeze past the dominant topics of abortion rights and wartime presidential powers last week at the confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Amid a total of some 18 hours of questioning over three days by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Alito addressed some key legal issues affecting schools.

As on most issues, Judge Alito was stoically noncommittal and revealed little about his judicial views on such issues as student religious expression, affirmative action, and protections of the rights of...