[JURIST] The US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] enters its third day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito [official profile] Wednesday morning with more questions scheduled from senators. On Tuesday, Alito parried questions on abortion and wiretaps [JURIST report], facing a stiff interrogation [Washington Post transcript] from Sen. Edward Kennedy on executive power. Saying that Alito's record indicated he had "been overly deferential to executive power, whether exercised by the president, the attorney general or law enforcement officials," Kennedy expressed doubts [Washington Post report] about President Bush's authority to bypass the newly-passed McCain Amendment ban on torture in a signing statement [JURIST document]. Alito said that the president cannot override a constitutional statute, but refused to address specific questions about the Amendment. Queried later on the role of foreign law, Alito said that that did not aid in constitutional interpretation but could be useful in some cases. Asked about his involvement in a Princeton alumni group described by Democratic senators as opposing the admission of women and minorities to the school, Alito replied that he had no specific memory of the organization, which he listed on a 1985 job application for the Reagan administration, and said that he had not been actively involved. The Los Angeles Times has more.

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