Hatch tries to protect judge amid fierce Demo questions

"I've wracked my memory, and I can't recall anything," Alito said. "And if I had been involved actively in any way in the group, I'm sure that I would remember that."

But Democrats are not accepting the answer.

"He can remember 67 of his dissents in detail but he can't remember this?" Kennedy said.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Alito probably included his membership in the group on the application because it was "red meat for the right wing." Alito was trying to get a job in the Reagan administration. Durbin said Alito "wasn't fresh from the bar exam" when he listed the group, and questions about it are just as legitimate as questioning any nominee about belonging to a country club or other group that excludes people.

Durbin said if Alito simply admitted he belonged to the group and that it was a mistake, it would be different, but the nominee is instead saying he does not remember renewing membership or participating in the group, which concerns Durbin.

Hatch said the Democrats just "don't have the guts" to say his association with the group is evidence he is racist because they know he is not. He said they would rather rely on the media to draw that conclusion.

Hatch continued his praise for Alito from the dais and used his 20-minute second round of questions for the nominee to speak about his critics.

"When somebody takes an unfair crack at me, I can come back at them as a member of the U.S. Senate," Hatch said. "But because you're a judge and not a politician, you really don't have the opportunity, really, to address fully these misrepresentations of your views. And there have been plenty of them in this process that you've had to undergo."

Alito insisted that the president has to follow the Constitution and the law.

"I think that if anybody looks at the cases that I voted on in any of the categories of cases that have been cited, they will see that there are decisions on both sides," Alito said. "In every type of employment discrimination case, for example, there are decisions on both sides."

He pointed to examples where he ruled for a disabled woman trying to get disability benefits and a woman who did not want to go back to Iran.

"It's easy to cherry-pick these cases and find a sentence here you don't like and a sentence there you don't like and criticize you, in the process, as though you're not being fair, when, in fact, everybody who knows you knows your impeccable reputation for fairness, dignity, decency and honor and capacity," Hatch said. "And that's why you got the highest rating from the American Bar Association. And deserve it. And you've twice got that. And I know how tough they can be."