morning of Monday, October 31, Bush announced the nomination of well-known conservative Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., a fifteen-year veteran of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Alito's confirmation hearing was held from Monday, January 9, 2006, to Friday, January 13. On Tuesday, January 24, his nomination was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a 10—8 party line vote. Debate on the nomination began in the full Senate on Wednesday, January 25. Despite a last minute effort by Democratic Senator John Kerry to filibuster, which was joined by, among others, Sens. Barack Obama, Joseph Biden, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, and Harry Reid, a cloture vote to end debate passed 72–25 on Monday, January 30. On the morning of Tuesday, January 31, Alito was confirmed to the Supreme Court by a vote of 58–42. Justice Alito was sworn in privately later that same day, and publicly sworn in the following day. Epilogue At the end of the 109th Congress, the Gang of 14 deal expired. On November 7, 2006, the Democrats retook control in the 110th Congress. Starting in January 2007, they possessed a 51—49 majority in the Senate. As the new Senate majority, the Democrats easily blocked several conservative appellate judicial nominees without resorting to the filibuster. Conservative appellate nominees like Peter Keisler, Robert J. Conrad and Steve A. Matthews were blocked in committee and never given a hearing. If a Supreme Court justice had died or chosen to retire during the 110th Congress, it would have been easy for the Democrats to have blocked his proposed replacement in committee, or even by a party-line vote on the Senate floor, if it somehow came to that. As it happened, no Supreme Court justice died or retired during the 110th Congress. Names frequently mentioned Following is a list of individuals who were mentioned in various news accounts as the most likely potential nominees for a Supreme Court appointment under Bush: United States Courts of Appeals Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit Samuel Alito (born 1950) (nominated and confirmed) Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit J. Harvie Wilkinson III (born 1944) – former chief judge Karen J. Williams (1951-2013) – former chief judge J. Michael Luttig (born 1954) – general counsel for The Boeing Company, former Fourth Circuit judge Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit Edith Brown Clement (born 1948) Emilio M. Garza (born 1947) Edith Jones