In 3 of 4 cases, Supreme Court nominee Alito voted on the side of abortion rights.

If there was any doubt about where US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito stands on abortion, his 90-year-old mother quickly and decisively put that question to rest.

"Of course he's against abortion," Rose Alito told the Associated Press in a telephone interview from her Hamilton, N.J., home.

Her candid statement may go down in history as the most blunt and honest admission of a Supreme Court nominee's view on the hot-button issue.

But the true test of appeals court judges isn't which personal views they hold, but to what extent those personal views may influence how they rule in a particular case.

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For example, of the four abortion cases in which he participated as an appeals court judge, he voted on the pro-choice side in all but one. A 1995 Alito vote striking down a Pennsylvania abortion restriction in particular is raising eyebrows among some legal scholars.

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How he may rule in abortion cases is particularly relevant to the inquiry since President Bush has named him to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a key swing voter and defender of abortion rights.

If Alito holds a different view on that issue, his vote could shift the balance of power on the court. His four abortion cases include:

• A 1991 challenge to a Pennsylvania law requiring married women to notify their husbands before seeking an abortion. The court struck down the restriction. Alito dissented.

• A 1995 challenge to a Pennsylvania law that required women seeking to use Medicaid funds to abort a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest to report the incident to law enforcement officials and identify the offender. Alito provided the decisive vote striking down the abortion restriction.

• A 1997 challenge to a New Jersey law that prevents parents from suing for damages on behalf of the wrongful death of a fetus. Alito ruled that the Constitution does not afford protection to the unborn.

• A 2000 challenge to New Jersey's ban on so-called partial-birth abortions. Alito struck down the law based on a recent Supreme Court decision.

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

 

Judges: Alito Unlikely to Overturn Roe

Judges who have served with Samuel Alito say he's unquestionably a conservative who would push the Supreme Court to the right, likely favoring new abortion restrictions that retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would not.

Five current or former judges on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals interviewed by The Associated Press described Alito as thoughtful, intelligent and fair. They said he has great respect for precedent-setting decisions and none of them offered that he would be likely to vote to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

O'Connor, whom Alito was tapped to replace by President Bush, has provided the fifth vote on a closely divided court to limit government power to restrict abortions.

"There's no question he's going to move the Supreme Court to the right because he is conservative," said former Judge Timothy Lewis, an appointee of the first President Bush who typically voted with liberal members when he served on the 3rd Circuit from 1992 to 1999.

"But in tens of thousands of cases that came before us, he faithfully showed a deference and deep respect for precedent," Lewis said. "From private caucus meetings and on the bench, I know he is an intellectually honest man and doesn't have personal predilections to foist upon the American people."

Senior Judge Leonard Garth, a Nixon appointee for whom Alito served as law clerk from 1976-77 before they became colleagues in 1990, said Alito supports tighter abortion restrictions, such as parental and spousal consent, but would stop there.

"Sam is not going to overturn Roe v. Wade," said Garth, a moderate conservative who signed on to a 2000 abortion-rights decision involving a procedure foes call "partial-birth" abortion that Alito criticized as too expansive.

Source: The Associated Press

 

Alito: US abortion ruling deserves 'great respect'

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said on Tuesday that the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion "deserved great respect" but did not say how he would rule on it, a Democratic senator said.

Emerging from a meeting with President George W. Bush's conservative candidate for the high court, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut said he was encouraged by Alito's comments about the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.

"He basically said ... that Roe was precedent on which people, a lot of people, relied, and had been precedent now for decades and therefore deserved great respect," Lieberman told reporters.

Source: Reuters