Alito Confirmed to Supreme Court

The U.S. Senate confirmed Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito by a 58-42 and largely partisan vote on Tuesday.

Alito will replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. A group of Democratic senators wanted to filibuster to block the confirmation vote, but their effort fell short. Both supporters and detractors of Alito say he is a conservative who will tilt the court to the right.

The 55-year-old jurist is a graduate of Princeton University and the Yale Law School. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the Seton Hall School of Law in Newark, N.J. Alito, previously a U.S. Appeals Court judge and before that a federal prosecutor, will be the 110th judge in the Supreme Court's history.

Only one Senate Republican voted against the confirmation, and only four Democrats gave their support to Alito. He will be the second new justice to join the nine-member high court in recent months, following John Roberts, who was confirmed as chief justice in September.

Roberts was originally selected by President Bush to replace O'Connor, but that changed when William Rehnquist died from cancer. After Rehnquist's death, the President said he wanted Roberts to preside over the court.