Issue Date: 11/14/05
Alito rejected Constitutional right to abortion, '85 document shows
By Jan Crawford Greenburg
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
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Alito made the comments in an application for a job as deputy assistant attorney general, when asked about his "philosophical commitment" to the Reagan administration's policies. He also staked out conservative positions opposing racial and ethnic quotas and said he disagreed with Supreme Court decisions that kept a high wall between church and state, as well as those that gave criminal defendants greater procedural protections from police.
Overall, the application portrays a young, ambitious conservative - at the time, he was working as an assistant to the solicitor general - but Alito's comments on abortion were most explosive, and they instantly make his confirmation battle fiercer. With the Supreme Court poised for historic change, one of the biggest questions posed by the addition of two new justices within a few months will be the future of abortion rights and whether the court will ultimately overturn Roe.
That issue has taken center stage in the battle over President Bush's nominees to the high court, consuming meetings with senators and, in the case of the recently confirmed Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., a good part of his hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Alito already had been a subject of scrutiny because Bush nominated him to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who provided a critical vote to uphold Roe and sided with more liberal justices to strike down restrictions on abortion. He also wrote, as a federal appeals court judge, a 1991 dissent in favor of a Pennsylvania law that required women to notify their husbands before getting an abortion.
In private visits with senators, Alito has said he respects the precedent set by Roe, but like previous nominees, he has declined to take a direct position on the case, which asserted that an implied right to privacy in the Constitution guarantees a woman's right to an abortion. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and other Democrats said Monday that in light of the revelations in the newly revealed document, they expect Alito to be more open about his current views than previous nominees.