Democrats fear Alito may vote to outlaw abortion
Reuters
By Thomas Ferraro and Joanne Kenen
Wednesday, January 11, 2006 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito sought on Wednesday to ease fears that he would seek to overturn the landmark 1973 ruling that legalized abortion, but Democrats said they were not convinced.
At the third day of his Senate confirmation hearing, Alito again was questioned about the divisive issue, with one Republican senator noting that the high court has reversed itself on other controversial matters, particularly school segregation. "It is the job of a judge, the job of a Supreme Court justice, to interpret the Constitution," Alito told the Senate Judiciary Committee, again promising to respect legal precedent and keep an "open mind" on abortion if the issue came before him on the high court. Throughout the questioning, Alito has not said how he would vote if asked to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. On Tuesday he said he believes in a constitutional right to privacy, a key underpinning of the ruling. President George W. Bush has nominated Alito, a federal appeals judge since 1990, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who often has been the swing vote on the nine-member court on abortion and other social issues. While Alito appears headed toward confirmation later this month by the full Republican-led Senate, abortion remained a chief focus at his confirmation hearing. The conservative judge, who opposed abortion while a Reagan administration lawyer two decades ago, noted that Roe v. Wade has been repeatedly upheld. "The more often a decision is reaffirmed, the more people tend to rely on it," Alito said. He added, "I think stare decisis (legal precedent) reflects the view that there is wisdom embedded in decisions that have been made by prior justices who take the same oath and are scholars and are conscientious." REAGAN-ERA MEMO But Democrats said they were troubled Alito has refused to disavow a 1985 memo in which he wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion." "I'm concerned that many people will leave this hearing with a question as to whether or not you could be the deciding vote that would eliminate the legality of abortion .... That is very troubling," said Sen. Richard Durbin (news, bio, voting record) of Illinois, a member of the committee and assistant Senate Democratic leader. Alito told Durbin: "The things that I said in the 1985 memo were a true expression of my views at the time. ... But that was 20 years ago and a great deal has happened in the case law since then." Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record), a Kansas Republican and an abortion opponent, argued that the Supreme Court has in the past "got it wrong" on important cases and needed to reverse itself. He showcased the 1896 "separate but equal" school segregation decision allowing states to continue discriminating against black Americans for 60 years, a decision he said stood for "twice the time as Roe v. Wade" before it was reversed. Alito agreed with Brownback that the Supreme Court "got it spectacularly wrong" on the separate-but-equal ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson that was overturned in 1954.
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