[JURIST] An influential Ohio Republican said Tuesday that US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito [official profile; JURIST news archive] had a judicial philosophy "clearly within the mainstream" and that he should not be filibustered. Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) was a member the bipartisan group of fourteen Senators that fashioned an agreement in May [JURIST report] that headed off the so called "nuclear option" which would have ended the filibustering of judicial nominees in the Senate. Although many Democratic Senators have said that at this point they are reserving judgment on Alito, at least one, Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) [official website] said Tuesday that he had not ruled out filibustering the nomination. AP has more.