Confirmation hearings on the nomination of Samuel A. Alito, Jr. to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, will begin on Monday, January 9, at 12:00 Noon.

Television coverage will be available on 'KAR3, which is available to subscribers of Comcast Cable Services in the Greater Lansing/East Lansing/Meridian areas. 'KAR3 can be seen on cable channel 20 (Lansing) or 28 (East Lansing/Meridian.) NPR coverage of the hearings will streamed online at WKAR.org.

The hearings are expected to continue through the week, with specific times of daily hearings to be announced. At press time, hearings are scheduled to begin Monday at Noon with statements by the 18 committee members and continue Tuesday through Friday at 9:30 a.m. (subject to change).

Alito will begin his testimony Tuesday morning, January 10.  His testimony and questions put to him could well continue at least through Thursday, January 12 and possibly go through Saturday, January 14.

Because of Alito's enormous judicial record and work in the Reagan Administration, there are likely to be far more questions for him than there were for John Roberts, who was confirmed as Chief Justice in 2005, says Senator Arlen Specter, chair of the Judiciary Committee.  Specter wants to limit the hearings to that week of January 9, but they are open-ended, there is a possibility of Saturday hearings.

On 'KAR3
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer will provide special gavel-to-gavel coverage, breaking for lunch when the committee takes its break. Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, will anchor the PBS coverage, along with NewsHour senior correspondents Gwen Ifill and Ray Suarez.

Syndicated columnist Mark Shields, New York Times columnist David Brooks, and National Law Journal Washington bureau chief Marcia Coyle will provide commentary and analysis for the television coverage.  Jan Crawford Greenburg, Supreme Court reporter for The Chicago Tribune, will provide live reports from the hearings.   

At WKAR.org
NPR's gavel-to-gavel coverage, which will be available online at WKAR.org, will be hosted by Neal Conan and Nina Totenberg. Totenberg will also provide updates in the various NPR newsmagazines. In addition, All Things Considered and Morning Edition will cover information about the hearings in various segments.

On WKAR-TV and 'KAR2
The regular one-hour evening broadcast of The NewsHour (seen weeknights at 7 p.m. on WKAR and at 10 p.m. on 'KAR2 – Comcast channel 18 in Lansing and 27 in East Lansing/Meridian) will also provide extensive coverage of the confirmation hearings, and will include extended excerpts from the hearings, analysis from legal scholars, and interviews with senators.