Defending our Values

In January 2006, Senator Edward Kennedy and I fought the nomination of Samuel Alito. All we had to do was read Judge Alito’s record to know what would happen if Judge Alito became Justice Alito.

We didn’t believe we could trust a Justice Alito to stand up to government abuse of power. We couldn’t trust him to ensure that all citizens have equal protection under the law. We couldn’t trust him to protect our right to privacy or to defend mainstream American values.

This was a tough fight. Some people thought we should just knuckle under. We believed there was too much on the line to go quietly – and once again, the naysayers underestimated you.

We called upon the johnkerry.com community to support us in filibustering Samuel Alito. Your response was overwhelming. 350,000 of you signed your name to our letter opposing Judge Alito. We had 25 fellow Senators join us in supporting the filibuster, and 42 Senators voted against Alito’s confirmation.

Now that Judge Alito has become Justice Alito, it is already clear from his record that you were right to speak out and question the positions he would take from the bench. And although we lost that battle, we sent a message to the Administration that we will never remain silent – we will never give in – we will fight for our convictions.