'No president is above the law'

US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito told Congress yesterday that no president was above the law when pressed on Bush administration policies on torturing prisoners and domestic spying.

Mr Alito, who opposed abortion as a Reagan administration official two decades ago, also testified at his Senate confirmation hearing that the Constitution protects the right to privacy, a key underpinning of the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalised abortion.

With the direction of the high court possibly at stake on this and other social issues, Mr Alito said if confirmed by the Senate he would treat abortion cases with an "open mind."

In the first round of questioning at his confirmation hearing, President George W. Bush's 55-year-old conservative nominee told the Senate Judiciary Committee that judges must respect legal precedent and that "no one is above the law."

"When someone becomes a judge, you really have to put aside the things you did as a lawyer at prior points in your legal career and think about legal issues the way a judge thinks about legal issues," testified Mr Alito, a federal appeals judge the past 15 years.

Mr Bush has nominated Mr Alito to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a moderate conservative who has often been the swing vote on the nine-member court on such issues as civil and abortion rights and presidential powers.

Mr Alito is expected to be confirmed later this month by the full Senate, which Mr Bush's fellow Republicans control, holding 55 of the 100 seats.

But more than half of the Senate's 44 Democrats and one independent are expected to oppose Mr Alito, who critics have charged has ruled overwhelmingly in favour of business and broad governmental powers, especially for the president.

Chairman Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, began what was expected to be at least two days of questioning of Mr Alito asking him about abortion and the administration's recently disclosed programme of eavesdropping, without court warrants, on Americans with suspected terrorist ties.

Mr Specter, who plans to hold a hearing on the domestic spying programme next month, asked Mr Alito if he agreed with a statement by Justice O'Connor in a separate case that "a state of war is not a blank cheques for the President when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens."

"Absolutely," Mr Alito responded. "That's a very important principle. Our Constitution applies in times of peace and in times of war, and it protects the rights of Americans under all circumstances."