WP: Newly Released Papers Energize Alito's Critics

[DeepModem Mom]

Newly Released Papers Energize Alito's Critics
Credibility Questions Are Raised Anew
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 2, 2005; Page A02


Newly released documents by Samuel A. Alito Jr. touching on abortion and other issues have pumped new life into efforts to sharply challenge his nomination to the Supreme Court, liberal activists said yesterday.

Details of Alito's 1985 strategy to undermine the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling have energized abortion rights groups, they said, but broader questions about his overall credibility may eventually prove more problematic to the Bush administration's confirmation efforts. One Democratic senator demanded yesterday that Alito explain why he omitted references to a 17-page abortion-strategy memo in a questionnaire recently returned to the Senate Judiciary Committee, while another senator -- Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the committee's senior member -- said that "a credibility gap is emerging with each new piece of information released on Judge Alito's record."

In a sign of Republican nervousness about the criticisms, Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) quickly scheduled a meeting with Alito for today, after which the senator will speak to reporters. Although Specter sometimes differs with President Bush, the White House credits him with stepping in to smooth out controversies in the previous confirmation efforts, for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and White House counsel Harriet Miers, who ultimately withdrew and was replaced by Alito.

The flurry of events was triggered by the release Wednesday of the lengthy 1985 memo in which Alito, then a Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration, outlined a strategy for attacking the 1973 Roe ruling without making a "frontal assault" that might prove unwinnable. "What can be made of this opportunity to advance the goals of bringing about the eventual overruling of Roe v. Wade and, in the meantime, of mitigating its effects?" he asked in the memo concerning a Pennsylvania case before the Supreme Court, Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Alito did not cite the case in his responses to the Senate questionnaire, also released on Wednesday, which asked him to describe the most significant litigation matters he has handled. The omission angered Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the Judiciary Committee, which will convene for Alito's confirmation hearing on Jan. 9....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/01/AR2005120101576.html

[sendero]

1. Bork..

... the mofo.

[Thom Little]

2. After Memo, Democrats Are Taking Firmer Stance Against Alito Nomination

By Carl Hulse and David D. Kirkpatrick
New York Times
Friday, Dec. 2, 2005


New disclosures about Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s positions on abortion are stiffening Democratic resistance and complicating the nomination for moderates in both parties as the Senate moves toward a Supreme Court confirmation fight in a charged election-year atmosphere.

Lawmakers and senior aides said Thursday that a newly released Reagan administration memorandum from 1985 laying out Judge Alito's strategy for weakening the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade abortion ruling has intensified Democratic skepticism toward the nominee not just on abortion rights, but also on whether he is being forthcoming.

Certainly the chance of a filibuster is greater today than it was the day Alito was nominated because of so many new revelations," Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York and a member of the Judiciary Committee, said Thursday.

Mr. Schumer also sent Judge Alito a letter asking him to explain why his participation in the Supreme Court case while working in the Justice Department was not disclosed in his responses to a Senate questionnaire.



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/politics/politicsspecial1/02confirm.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. what gets me

are the rw spin doctors. There were a couple on News Hour last night, and they said that what he said back then didn't really mean he believed it today. Sure. I'm 54 years old, and I believed in choice when I was young and guess what? I still believe in choice today.

That being said, I don't think it wise to oppose Alito solely on the one issue. His rulings in other cases, such as affirmative action and expanded power for the police (where a child can be strip searched, for example) are examples of what he's done as a judge that show he's way off the center and an extremist who favors a fascist state.

[rodeodance]

4. yes, his record should be looked at as a whole--and from what I read-

he is dangerous.