President names Alito
on Oct 31, 2005 at 8:02 am
Moving to rebuild his conservative political coalition and hoping to shift the Supreme Court toward the Right, President Bush on Monday selected Circuit Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr., as his nominee to succeed Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. The President’s announcement and Judge Alito’s remarks can be found here.
Bush, a President who has refused repeatedly to govern from the center, maintained that approach in selecting a judge who is well known as a committed conservative.
Liberal observers of the Court immediately pointed to a handful of Judge Alito’s opinions on the Third Circuit as indications of just how conservative they expect him to be. Among those cited, for example, by americanprogress.org were these: 1991, supporting abortion restrictions, in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that later went to the Supreme Court and led to the partial reaffirmation of Roe v. Wade; in 1997, in Bray v. Marriott Hotels, seeming to endorse a limited view of minorities’ job rights; in 1991, in Nathanson v. Medical College, appearing to embrace tougher standard for asserting disability rights; in 2000, in Chittister v. Department of Community and Economic Development, finding that Congress had gone too far in passing the Family and Medical Leave Act; in 2004, in Doe v. Groody, embracing broader police search power, including strip searches; and in 2004, Dia v. Ashcroft and Ki Se Lee v. Ashcroft, taking a hard line against immigrants’ rights.
Alito has a lengthy resume, filled with strong indications that he is qualified professionally. Those who know him personally, and those who have served with him and appeared before the Third Circuit, have said he is an even-tempered individual. Some expect him to attempt to become a consensus-builder on the Supreme Court, and to be less aggressive in advancing his conservative views than Justice Antonin Scalia is known to be.
The President’s announcement stressed Alito’s lengthy career in the law, and 15 years as an appellate judge, which marked a stark contrast with the thin list of similar accomplishments by Harriet E. Miers, the White House Counsel whose nomination to the Court was withdrawn last week after a severe assault by the President’s most conservative followers.
As expected, Democrats immediately signaled a hard fight against Alito’s nomination, with backup support from an array of liberal activist organizations. Senate minority leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said in a statement that this nomination “requires an especially long hard look by the Senate” because of the demand by conservatives that a “radical” to their liking be named.
In what is expected to be a primary “talking point” among Democrats, Reid said: “Justice O’Connor has been the deciding vote in key cases protecting individual rights and freedoms on a narrowly divided Court. The stakes in selecting her replacement are high.”
One of the liberal groups that has long spoiled for a fight with Bush over a Supreme Court nomination, People for the American Way, promised a “massive national effort to defeat Alito’s nomination” because he “would dramatically shift the balance on the Court.”
Conservative organizations, intent on having an identifiably conservative replacement for O’Connor, will be mounting an equally strong national effort, to support Alito’s confirmation. The American Center for Law and Justice, for example, praised the President for fulfilling a promise “of choosing nominees to the Supreme Court who are in the mold of Justices Scalia and Thomas.” The ACLJ is expected to be one of the more active groups in pushing this nominee.
