Alito on 8-member court: 'We will deal with it'

WASHINGTON — If the Supreme Court is left with eight members for a year or more while the White House and Senate Republicans battle over the confirmation process, "We will deal with it," Justice Samuel Alito said Tuesday.

"It will be a new experience," Alito acknowledged, following the unexpected death 10 days ago of Justice Antonin Scalia. He said the period since then, incorporating Scalia's funeral and the resumption of oral arguments this week, "has been a great shock to us."

Alito's comments were the first from one of the remaining justices to address the situation facing the high court for the foreseeable future. With President Obama poised to nominate a replacement for Scalia but Senate Republicans saying they will not even hold hearings before the presidential election in November, the court could be left with just eight justices for the remainder of the current term and into the next.

That raises the prospect of tie votes and rescheduled cases; a protracted battle over one or more nominees; the potential for a temporary recess appointment; and, in the meantime, the empowerment of the liberal voting bloc on the court that leaves Alito's conservatives in danger of losing cases they might have won.

Here's how Scalia's death affects Supreme Court rulings this year

On first day without Scalia, Supreme Court faces a possible tie vote

None of that appeared to worry Alito, who has served 10 years on the court since his own controversial nomination. He was President George W. Bush's third choice to fill the seat of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in 2005, but it wasn't until Jan. 31, 2006, that he won confirmation by a relatively narrow 58-42 vote.

10 years after, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito makes his case

Recalling his own trial by fire as a new justice that year, Alito said he was helped by having 15 years of experience as a federal appeals court judge — a background he highly recommended for Supreme Court nominees past and future.

"I think it would be very difficult for somebody who has not been dealing with the whole breadth of federal law ... to be ready for those interviews," Alito said.

That would elevate one group of potential Obama nominees — current federal circuit court judges such as Sri Srinivasan, Jane Kelly and Paul Watford — and diminish the chances of state court judges, U.S. senators and others. But, of course, Alito isn't the one making the choice.

"I have enough trouble with the questions I have to decide," he said.