Judge Samuel Alito began hearings for a position on the U.S. Supreme Court last Monday, Jan. 9.

Last October President Bush nominated Alito to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court, replacing Sandra Day O’Connor who is retiring.

Alito has “forthrightly answered questions with grace and composure and showed his personal humility and legal brilliance — qualities that have made him one of America’s most accomplished and respected judges,” President Bush said in a radio announcement.

Alito now serves as the U.S. attorney in Newark, N.J. He has previously served in the U.S. Army Reserve as a captain, worked as a federal prosecutor, served as assistant to the Solicitor General, served in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and for the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.