Reply #14: Alito Helped Craft Reagan-Era Move To Restrict 'Roe' (WaPo)

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/30/AR2005113000723.html

Alito Helped Craft Reagan-Era Move To Restrict 'Roe'
Supreme Court Nominee Wrote Memo In 1985 as Justice Department Lawyer

By Amy Goldstein and Jo Becker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, December 1, 2005; Page A01

As a Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. helped devise a legal strategy to persuade the high court to restrict and eventually overturn Roe v. Wade , the historic decision legalizing abortion.

In a memo disclosed yesterday that he wrote in 1985 as an assistant to the solicitor general, Alito recommended that the administration submit a brief to the Supreme Court, asking it to uphold a Pennsylvania law that imposed a variety of abortion restrictions and "make clear that we disagree with Roe v. Wade ."

Alito argued in the 17-page document that stepping into the case, Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists , would be a more effective strategy for President Ronald Reagan than a "frontal assault" on the landmark case and would not "even tacitly concede Roe 's legitimacy." Disagreeing with the administration's position, the court struck down the Pennsylvania law the following year.

Coming on a day when the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the most significant abortion rights case to reach the court in five years, the abortion memo immediately touched off intense new criticism from Democrats -- and hesitancy among some moderate Republicans -- over Alito's nomination.