Alito said to have worried over '91 abortion opinion

[question everything]

Alito said to have worried over '91 abortion opinion

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

November 3, 2005

WASHINGTON – Judge Samuel Alito, President Bush's choice for the Supreme Court, told a pivotal Democrat that he had wrestled intensely with a 1991 opinion favoring an abortion restriction that has become a flash point in the debate over his confirmation.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said that in a private meeting he had asked Alito about his dissent in the appeals court case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The majority opinion in the case struck down a law requiring a married woman to notify her husband before having an abortion. Alito, in dissent, would have upheld that provision.

(snip)

Durbin's account of the conversation, which was not disputed by a spokesman for the White House, casts new light on Alito's thinking on an opinion that partisans on both sides of the abortion debate have seized as evidence that Alito would vote to narrow abortion rights.

Interest groups on both sides are mobilizing for a battle because Alito would succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the swing vote on decisions about abortion and other social issues. Durbin, however, said Alito had told him that, rather than addressing the broader subject of abortion, he had struggled to interpret O'Connor's opinions about prohibiting an "undue burden" on a woman's right to have the procedure.

(snip)


Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051103/news_1n3alito.html

[Gloria]

1. This is bullshit, he's never wrestled intensely over anything

The Dems are already losing this thing....this drip drip drip of all the "doubt" that Alito has on this stuff...

It's all a lie. Why would Democrats believe ANYONE appointed by BUSH???

Why is there silence from the rightwingers? Why are the pro-Alito ads running.... Dobson and the crew are thrilled.

Democrats are falling into the trap of being "statesmanlike" as the other side gets ready to screw us...

[Canuckistanian]

2. Nevertheless, he made his decision

Nixon may have wrestled with the decision to break into the DNC headquarters or Bush I to trade arms for hostages, but the deeds were done and in the final analysis, that's all that matters.

[rooboy]

3. "Mengele said to have worried about concentration camps."

Who gives a fuck - it's what Alito DID that counts.

[tocqueville]

4. the mere idea that a politically appointed judge is going to "interprete"

"O'Connor's opinions about prohibiting an "undue burden" on a woman's right to have the procedure" is both preposterous and repulsive from a democratic standpoint.

Judge are to apply laws, not to "interprete" them. If there was a law (voted by congress) about abortion the US, this middle-age debate wouldn't happen...

it's getting ridiculous, same with anti-discrimination.

the true questions of the system of separation of powers, the role of law and the power of the judiciary are not adressed here.

You'll always find a judge that say's that torture is "constitutional" if you appoint him for LIFE...

the US need a new constitution, that's for sure

[DanCa]

5. Alito is not neato

I hope he doesn't get confirmed.

[beyurslf]

6. So wrestled around a bit before deciding that a woman has no right

to do something without first consulting her husband? Wow, what a man!

Had the question been whether a man needs permission from his wife to <<insert anything you can possibly think of here>> how long do you think Alito would have "wrestled" before saying "Of course a man can do whatever the hell he pleases."

We have enough misogynistic bastards on the Court already.