use of the filibuster, believing that it was both ineffective and the wrong way of going about the nomination, then senator, Barack Obama ultimately joined the attempt to filibuster Alito, due to believing that Alito's views were "contrary to core American values" Obama later expressed regret over supporting the filibuster, believing that it contributed to the "broken" nomination process for the Supreme Court. Full Senate The Senate voted 58–42 on January 31, 2006, to confirm Alito as the 110th justice of the Supreme Court. All but one of the Senate's 55 Republicans voted to confirm Alito; they were joined by four Democrats who broke party ranks and voted in his favor. This was the closest confirmation vote for a Supreme Court nominee since Associate Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed 52–48 in 1991. References . External links Response to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire Questionnaire Nov. 30 2005 (PDF) Appendix1 Appendix2 Appendix3 Appendix4 Transcript of nomination Text of Bush's nomination of Alito Confirmation Hearing on the Nomination of Samuel A. Alito, Jr., to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States: Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Ninth Congress, Second Session, January 9-13, 2006 Searchable version of confirmation hearing transcripts Scholarly paper, "Presidential Strategies in Supreme Court Justice Selection" 2005 in American law 2005 in American politics 2005 in the United States Nominations to the United States Supreme Court Presidency of George W. Bush 109th United States Congress