Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Democrats sought a week's delay in the Senate confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito that Republican leaders had hoped to complete by Jan. 20.

As five days of hearings on Alito's nomination were concluded in Washington, the Senate Judiciary Committee's ranking Democrat, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, said members of his party would exercise their right under the rules to delay the committee's scheduled Jan. 17 vote for a week. That would force a week's delay in the final Senate vote.

Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, the panel's chairman and a supporter of abortion rights, said he will vote to confirm Alito, 55, nominated to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Specter dismissed arguments that Alito had evaded questions about his views on the high court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.

``Judge Alito went as far as he could on considerations on Roe,'' Specter said. ``I don't think that his 1985 statement binds him'' to vote to overturn the landmark decision.

As a Justice Department lawyer, Alito wrote a memo outlining a strategy for persuading the high court to narrow and ultimately eliminate abortion rights.

Alito wrote the memo as an advocate, not as a judge, Specter said. ``If you start to talk about what lawyers do, you're missing the boat,'' he told reporters.

Republicans were quick to criticize the Democrats' decision to seek a delay in the committee vote. Texas Republican John Cornyn said in a statement, ``a delay for delay's sake would be a petty, partisan move.''

Martin Luther King Holiday

Leahy said a delay of the committee vote is needed because most lawmakers will be traveling in the next three days to events to commemorate the birthday of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

Leahy said he was willing to discuss the possibility of delaying the committee vote for less than a week. Starting the Senate debate Jan. 24 or 25 would still accommodate President George W. Bush's desire to get Alito confirmed before his Jan. 31 State of the Union address, the senator said.

Specter said he was willing to delay the committee vote by two days.

For Democrats, a week's delay would keep the Alito nomination alive as a political issue, particularly in states such as Ohio and Rhode Island where Republican senators face tough re-election fights.

Television Ads

MoveOn.org Political Action began airing television ads this week in both states opposing Alito to put pressure on Ohio Republican Mike DeWine and Rhode Island Republican Lincoln Chafee. Additionally, a coalition of civil rights groups, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said it would begin a television ad urging voters to pressure lawmakers to oppose Alito.

Specter said he saw no political advantage for the Democrats in delaying the vote.

``I don't think there is any life in it as a political issue,'' Specter said. ``I think we know how the vote in committee is going to come out and we ought to go to the floor and debate it in the floor.''

Specter predicted a 10-8 party-line vote in the Judiciary Committee and that in the full Senate Alito would get the votes of some Democrats representing states Bush carried in the 2004 presidential election.

Leahy, who has questioned whether Alito would be too deferential to presidential power, said he would study the hearing transcripts before deciding how to vote.

Conflicting Views

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told reporters he hopes ``the Senate remains on the schedule as previously outlined and he receives a floor vote by Jan. 20.''

On the last day of hearings, the panel heard conflicting views from legal scholars, civil rights leaders and lawyers about whether Roberts should be confirmed and how he might vote on abortion and discrimination cases.

During his four days of testimony, Alito voiced support for various ways of deciding cases and for a variety of past and present justices. He spoke in favor of looking ``to the text of the Constitution,'' an approach that sounded similar to Justice Antonin Scalia's. He also praised O'Connor and said he looks at his job case by case without any ideological mindset, following her model.

Law Professors

Among today's witnesses was Harvard law professor Charles Fried, who supervised Alito when Fried was U.S. solicitor general during President Ronald Reagan's administration. He said he didn't think Alito would ``move toward a frontal over-ruling'' of the 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide.

Alito ``is in the mainstream,'' Fried told the committee. ``He tends toward the right bank of the mainstream.''

Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe said that if Alito joined the high court he would be likely to chip away in his rulings until abortion law was a ``shell'' of what it is today.

Kate Michelman, former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said Alito's 15 years of appellate court rulings show he can't be trusted to uphold Roe. She urged senators to consider that Alito is slated to replace O'Connor, the first female justice and a pivotal vote on abortion issues.

``It is very clear that he will move the court in a very different and dangerous direction for women's legal rights,'' Michelman said.

Former Alito law clerks endorsed his nomination.

``Judge Alito treats everyone, everyone the same,'' said former clerk Jack White, a lawyer at the Kirkland & Ellis LLP law firm in San Francisco. ``He looks at every case as a brand-new case.''

Theodore Shaw, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York, said the group opposed Alito's confirmation, saying his ``cramped'' view of discrimination law would make it ``very difficult for African American plaintiffs in civil rights cases to prevail.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Schmidt in Washington at rschmidt5@bloomberg.net; James Rowley in Washington at jarowley@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 13, 2006 16:40 EST