← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Blond Knight
Thread ID: 20816 | Posts: 18 | Started: 2005-10-31
2005-10-31 14:22 | User Profile
Any thoughts on President Clouseau's latest nominee?
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[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4392540.stm[/url]
Last Updated: Monday, 31 October 2005, 14:17 GMT
President George W Bush has nominated federal appeals court judge Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court.
He described Mr Alito as "one of the most accomplished and respected judges in America" and urged the Senate quickly to approve his nomination.
Mr Alito, seen as a conservative, said the role of a Supreme Court justice was to interpret, not make, the law.
The leader of the Democrats in the Senate has warned Mr Alito may face opposition in confirmation hearings.
Mr Bush's first choice, Harriet Miers, withdrew after Democrats questioned her judicial credentials and conservative Republicans her views on key issues.
The new nomination comes at a tense time for the White House, with a senior aide to Vice-president Dick Cheney charged last week in connection with a CIA leak.
'Extraordinary experience'
If approved by the Senate, the 55-year-old Mr Alito will take the place of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who often held the swing vote in the court.
Announcing the nomination, Mr Bush stressed Mr Alito's "extraordinary breadth of experience", saying he had a greater judicial record than any nominee in the past 70 years.
He urged the Senate to approve his choice in a quick up-or-down vote before the end of the year.
Mr Bush called Alito a "thoughtful judge who considers the legal merits carefully and applies the law in a principled fashion".
He went on: "I'm confident that the United States Senate will be impressed by Judge Alito's distinguished record, his measured judicial temperament, and his tremendous personal integrity."
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the choice of Mr Alito is likely to prove highly controversial.
As a supporter of restricting, if not entirely abolishing, the constitutional right of American women to have abortions, Mr Alito's selection would galvanise the conservative base of Mr Bush's Republican party but horrify the US left.
If he gets to the Supreme Court, he will be in a position to join forces with other social conservatives to reshape the culture of the nation, our correspondent adds.
'Too radical'
Republican Senator John Cornyn has praised Mr Alito as a "man of outstanding character, who is deeply committed to public service", the Reuters news agency reports.
Click to see the President's ratings after major events
More details
But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who leads the Senate Democrats, said he was disappointed by Mr Alito's nomination, warning he may prove "too radical for the American people".
Mr Reid and other Democrats had urged the president to pick a moderate, consensus candidate rather than bowing to pressure from conservative Republicans.
Mr Alito is considered a quiet and reserved member of the federal appeals courts, having sat on the Third Circuit in Philadelphia since 1990.
He is known for consistently conservative judgements, leading commentators to compare him to current Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
The justices of the Supreme Court have immense power and are appointed until they die, resign or are impeached.
In the near future, the court is expected to consider some of America's most bitterly contested social issues, including assisted suicide, abortion, same-sex marriage, human cloning and campaign finance law.
2005-10-31 15:38 | User Profile
[QUOTE]But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who leads the Senate Democrats, said he was disappointed by Mr Alito's nomination, warning he may prove "too radical for the American people".[/QUOTE] Well, too radical for American's who want unrestricted abortion, religion of any type eliminated from public reference or institutions, strip clubs next to pre-schools, and homosexual marriage. Other Americans might welcome a strict constructionist.
2005-10-31 17:11 | User Profile
I hope his nickname holds true: "Scalito," named as such for vigorous dissents on the 3rd and his conservative, strict interpretive philosophy. However, as with Scalia himself, there are always dark smudges.
I would have to suspect that Bush has picked him primarily with the "enemy combatant" doctrine in mind, being that Iraq/Middle East fighting comes as #1 in the Bush administration.
My hope is that the damage done to the Constitution through radical social policy on the Court are dammed up. Yet, in order to do so, it would require one more appointee after Alito (assuming Roberts does in fact turn out to be what he is claimed to be by Bush).
2005-10-31 18:18 | User Profile
At glance ââ¬ÅMachine Gun Sammyââ¬â¢sââ¬Â resume appears sound, save for the Chertoff connection. The Senate is bound to get all-fired up. Could be quite a show, the slob Kennedy is rowdy already. For nothing since the nationââ¬â¢s course is irreversibly set and a little nip-and-tuck of such gems as ââ¬Ëreproductive rightsââ¬â¢ is ultimately meaningless. This nickname, one of several heââ¬â¢s earned, is the only thing that matters.
2005-10-31 19:02 | User Profile
im hesitant to celebrate anything, but yes, it should be fun to watch the liberals twist in their panties over this one. maybe we should spread a rumor that he wants to end affirmative action and is secretly in cahoots with Roberts to help bring this about. That should be good for at least a few race riots. :smoke:
2005-10-31 22:05 | User Profile
Some more background info on Mr. Alito.
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[url]http://news.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=us/0-0-0&fp=43661e3f0ed64ce2&ei=XpJmQ4q-Osyi6AHzksW3Bw&url=http%3A//www.forbes.com/home/business/2005/10/31/bush-alito-court-cz_df_1031alitorecord.html&cid=1101522280[/url]
Law And Order Guy Daniel Fisher, 10.31.05, 2:40 PM ET
NEW YORK - Business leaders should hail President George W. Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court--if they like to honor their contracts and pay their bills on time.
In his 15 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, Alito repeatedly has upheld the rights of companies to enforce the terms of their contracts, including clauses requiring binding arbitration and specifying where the parties can sue. He's also favored corporate defendants when there is a question about how to apply federal regulations and has been tough on plaintiffs accusing companies of committing securities fraud.
"All and all, business wins," if Alito is confirmed, said Ted Frank, resident fellow at the Washington D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute and director of the AEI Liability Project. "Alito is a solid conservative who understands the importance of the law of contracts, of the free market system."
The stock market may have signaled its agreement on Monday; the Dow Jones Industrial Average had risen 49 points at midday.
Liberal groups, like People for the American Way, immediately assailed Bush's pick, saying Alito threatened employment rights and Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
"It is sad that the president felt he had to pick a nominee likely to divide America," said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Alito, a native of Trenton, N.J., who attended Princeton and Yale Law School, served as a U.S. Attorney in New Jersey and in the Justice Department, before he was tapped by former President George H. W. Bush for the Third Circuit in 1990.
Andrew Frey of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw in New York, who worked with Alito in the office of the Solicitor General in Washington D.C. in the early 1980s, said he's "a smart guy, a quiet guy," who betrayed no sense of his political beliefs. Frey has argued more than 60 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, including BMW v. Gore, in which the justices overturned an Alabama court's award of $2 million in damages to a doctor who was angered by an undisclosed $300 paint repair on his new car.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia, considered the two most conservative members of the court, dissented in that decision and have shown little willingness to protect businesses from punitive damages.
"The business community, in my opinion, should not be in favor of movement conservatives," Frey said. "I don't know, but I don't think he's probably in the same camp as Scalia and Thomas."
Larry Ribstein, a professor of business law at the University of Illinois, posted a list of Alito's business-related decisions on his blog this weekend when an online futures market began indicating Alito might be a front-runner for O'Connor's seat. Among his decisions are rulings upholding an insurance company's waiver of a particular defense, sending litigation involving Cigna (nyse: CI - news - people ) back to England and one denying an award to a whistleblower who merely disclosed public information about SmithKline Beecham, now part of GlaxoSmithKline (nyse: GSK - news - people ).
"It's not just enforcing contracts, although he does have a definite tendency in that direction," said Ribstein. "Some of the clauses he's chosen to enforce are particularly valuable for business."
Alito also joined the dissent in a controversial antitrust decision against 3M. The maker of Scotch-brand tape was sued by a competitor who accused 3M (nyse: MMM - news - people ) of using price rebates to break into the market for private-label tape. The majority of the Third Circuit judges upheld the $68 million verdict, but Alito signed off on a dissent noting the plaintiff never showed that 3M had priced below cost or how 3M's rebates might have harmed consumers.
The majority's decision led to copycat litigation, said Frank of AEP, but "worse, it's created uncertainty for business."
"If you give volume discounts, the losing competitor can sue you for anticompetitive behavior," Frank said.
If Alito ascends to O'Connor's seat, businesses might get more of their cases before the justices. The Supreme Court has been hearing about 80 cases per year--well below its historical average, Frank said. A more energetic Roberts court might hear more cases overall--and more business cases in particular. Securities, antitrust and employment suits all provide great opportunities for the court to clarify rules of conduct and reduce uncertainty, he said--if the justices avoid the temptation to bend the rules when they might seem unfair.
"If the rule is a 23-part balancing test, there's just going to be more litigation over all of these different aspects of the case," Frank said.
2005-11-01 04:07 | User Profile
In today's America, paleos should be very happy that Roberts and now, possibly, Alito are on the top court.
I couldn't be happier. And I don't get very happy about many political happenings these days. They only need 51 Senate votes to confirm, so this should be a slam dunk.
One question: Libs say they don't like his pro-life views. But they bitch about Roberts stonewalling them during questioning. What do you want Libs: honest testimony or stonewalling? Make up your minds.
2005-11-01 14:23 | User Profile
If there's any shred of redemption for the pathetic and criminial George W Bush, it's possibly his choice of Alito for Justice of SCOTUS. Justice Roberts might turn out to be a good conservative too. Somehow though, I don't think Jorge made these choices all on his own.
But Bush is still the worst, and more sadly, the most dangerous president in the history of the USA.
2005-11-01 21:37 | User Profile
[quote=xmetalhead]If there's any shred of redemption for the pathetic and criminial George W Bush, it's possibly his choice of Alito for Justice of SCOTUS. Justice Roberts might turn out to be a good conservative too. Somehow though, I don't think Jorge made these choices all on his own.
Of course he didn't. He caved to pressure from his base. One thing's for sure: we're not going to get a better pick from Bush.
2005-11-02 00:29 | User Profile
So far everything I've read and heard about Alito sounds good. A good solid conservative in the traditional sense, and he definitely has a really solid background. Should be fun to watch things go down in the Senate.
2005-11-02 00:50 | User Profile
When congress passes the "negro repatriation act" I will celebrate, until then ill just keep whistling "Dixie".
2005-11-02 02:32 | User Profile
[quote=JoseyWales]When congress passes the "negro repatriation act" I will celebrate, until then ill just keep whistling "Dixie".
You wonder if he tossed Miers up as a trial balloon, and had this guy in his sites all along.
Nah, GW Bush aint that clever. Maybe Laura set it up . . .
AE
2005-11-02 02:44 | User Profile
Proving that you just do not know what you are getting in regard to court nominees, some interesting info on Justice Scalia.
[url]http://littlegeneva.com/?p=369[/url]
Antonin Scalia argues for the conventionality and moral relativity of law, which is an unsettling thought, to say the least, for us theocrats. Note Scaliaââ¬â¢s assertion that "modern governments in the West at least, are thought to derive their authority from the consent of the governed." Iââ¬â¢ve always hated this idea, which smacks of the Social Contract. The state derives authority from God alone, as Romans 13 makes clear. A friend of mine is equally exasperated: "Federal judges are not judges of the law, but judges of the ââ¬Ëlaw of the contract.ââ¬â¢ For example, a contract may be entered into that necessarily requires that one do an illegal act. While it may be the law of the contract, the contract itself is not lawful. For this reason, I have regarded the self-referential statement that the federal law is the highest law of the land a sacrilegious statement at least." My friend is exactly correct, and it will come as no surprise to you that he is a secessionist. It is not possible to avoid elevating conventional law to an idol without allowing for secession as redress for tyranny. My friend asks a very important question that logically follows: "why should anyone subscribe to his [Scaliaââ¬â¢s] notion of meaning?" Without an objective standard for law (the Bible), we are quite literally cut adrift. This is why Chesterton said that a man who ceases to believe in God will not then believe in nothing. Rather, he will believe in anything.
The opposite of a theocrat is a democrat, and a "conservative" these days is by definition a democrat. The only thing that distinguishes a "conservative" from a "liberal" in our time is the acknowledgement that the Constitution gives circumscribed powers to the various branches of federal government. The "conservative" will take the very liberal measure of granting to the American People (who are an abstraction, remember) the right to legalize abortion or sodomy or devilry of any kind so long as they abide by the democratic process. Any sort of degeneracy may be justified if it conforms to the will of the majority. Iââ¬â¢ll give you some quotes from Scalia, the most "conservative" justice, to prove my point. In his dissent to the Lawrence v. Texas case which erased anti-sodomy statutes in Texas, he wrote: "Let me be clear that I have nothing against homosexualsââ¬Â¦promoting their agenda through normal democratic means. Social perceptions of sexual and other morality change over time, and every group has the right to persuade its fellow citizens that its views of such matters is the best. That homosexuals have achieved some success in that enterprise is attested to by the fact that Texas is one of the few remaining States that criminalize private, consensual homosexual acts. But persuading oneââ¬â¢s fellow citizens is one thing, and imposing oneââ¬â¢s views in absence of democratic majority will is something else." He has written that "Judges have no more capacity than the rest of us to determine what is moral," and that the "true tradition of religious freedom in America is a tradition of neutrality amongst religious faiths." He is a neo-Babelist, too: "To pursue the concept of racial entitlement - even for the most admirable and benign of purposes - is to reinforce and preserve for future mischief the way of thinking that produced race slavery, race privilege and race hatred. In the eyes of government, we are just one race here. It is American."
Justice Scalia voted in favor of having a Talmudic school operate at taxpayer expense in Monsey, New York. In correspondence with Rabbi Noson Gurary, a disciple of the late Rabbi Schneerson of the Lubavitch sect, who thought he was the Messiah, Scalia mentioned his "fascination with Jewish law." That led Gurary to found the National Institute for Judaic Law, and Scalia has been a guest at their banquets held in the Supreme Court building. Of course, no public outrage followed this violation of the "separation of church and state," which, for all other religions, must be unambiguous. There was certainly no outrage over one of the most eminent jurors of a once-Christian nation attending a function hosted by anti-Christs. The allegedly Christian president, George W. Bush, even sent a greeting, congratulating the Institute for promoting the "understanding of Judaismââ¬â¢s rich tradition of legal thought." The words "Equal Justice Under Law" are engraved on the Supreme Court building, but the Jewish Talmud has a very different conception of justice. In capital cases, 23 must sit in judgment on a Jew, and there must be two eyewitnesses to the offense. Only one man is required to sit in judgment over a Gentile, who may be convicted on the testimony of only one eyewitness. As Michael Hoffman says, this is yet more evidence that "Judaism is becoming the de facto state religion of America." As Otto Scott says, the true established religion is the one you are not allowed to criticize. Try to criticize Jews and their God-damned religion, and you will learn the meaning of the word ostracism.
2005-11-02 03:39 | User Profile
I think that is pretty weak, Blond. Scalia is under no obligation as a justice to render Biblically-based decisions, he is only required to interpret the Constitution as written. I think his own views on religion may be closer to this author's than given credit for, but that's not his role, and besides - the only way to get this type of society is to have it done by the populace, not by some judge. Scalia at least leaves this option open to us, whereas the rest would restrain it.
His message is consistent, and worst case, that separates him from 99% of those in American leadership.
2005-11-02 03:44 | User Profile
And on another tangent, Scalia has 9 children. So in his personal life, he's certainly doing good for society. That means he has 9 more offspring than Buchanan, Francis, and put Linder put together.
:lol:
2005-11-02 03:50 | User Profile
Jay,
Buchanan's wife, Shelly can't have children.
2005-11-02 04:49 | User Profile
[url]http://www.newamerica.net/index.cfm?pg=article&DocID=2291[/url]
[QUOTE]Scalia urges fellow-Catholics to "have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity," as he told a meeting of the Knights of Columbus in January.
That meeting was at a Holiday Inn in Baton Rouge (an unusual venue for a Justice). "[B]Be fools for Christ[/B]," he told the crowd. "Have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world." Scalia considers himself an interloper in the sophisticated world-a blunt-spoken, rules-are-rules jurist and traditional Catholic in a secular world made wobbly by moral relativism.[/QUOTE]
2005-11-02 17:56 | User Profile
I remain unconvinced about Alito.
[B][FONT=Georgia, Times,][COLOR=#556688]On abortion, a nuanced stand[/COLOR][/FONT][/B]
[FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000][B]In 3 of 4 cases, Supreme Court nominee Alito voted on the side of abortion rights.[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000][B]By [URL="http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/encryptmail.pl?ID=D7E1F2F2E5EEA0D2E9E3E8E5F9"]Warren Richey[/URL][/B] | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000] [B]WASHINGTON[/B] - If there was any doubt about where US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito stands on abortion, his 90-year-old mother quickly and decisively put that question to rest.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]"Of course he's against abortion," Rose Alito told the Associated Press in a telephone interview from her Hamilton, N.J., home.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]Her candid statement may go down in history as the most blunt and honest admission of a Supreme Court nominee's view on the hot-button issue.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]But the true test of appeals court judges isn't which personal views they hold, but to what extent those personal views may influence how they rule in a particular case.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]On this issue, legal analysts disagree in their assessments of Judge Alito. Some say he is a conservative ideologue. Others say he is a smart, careful jurist who leaves personal views behind when he dons his black robes.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]The best evidence of his work as a judge are his published opinions. They contain a few surprises and some ammunition - for both the left and the right.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000][B]For example, of the four abortion cases in which he participated as an appeals court judge, he voted on the pro-choice side in all but one.[/B] A 1995 Alito vote striking down a Pennsylvania abortion restriction in particular is raising eyebrows among some legal scholars.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]"That [1995 case] strongly seems to indicate that Alito is not a policy-driven true-believer who's used every possible opportunity to advance one side's preferred outcome, but instead a judge who has indeed come down on both sides, in different cases," says David Garrow, a constitutional historian and expert in reproductive rights cases at the high court.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]Senate investigators, legal scholars, and special interest group lawyers are poring over Judge Alito's opinions written during 15-years of work on the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals. They are looking for clues of what kind of justice Alito might become if confirmed to a life-tenure post on the nation's highest court.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]How he may rule in abortion cases is particularly relevant to the inquiry since President Bush has named him to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a key swing voter and defender of abortion rights.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]If Alito holds a different view on that issue, his vote could shift the balance of power on the court. His four abortion cases include:[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]ââ¬Â¢ A 1991 challenge to a Pennsylvania law requiring married women to notify their husbands before seeking an abortion. The court struck down the restriction. Alito dissented.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]ââ¬Â¢ A 1995 challenge to a Pennsylvania law that required women seeking to use Medicaid funds to abort a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest to report the incident to law enforcement officials and identify the offender. [B]Alito provided the decisive vote striking down the abortion restriction.[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]ââ¬Â¢ A 1997 challenge to a New Jersey law that prevents parents from suing for damages on behalf of the wrongful death of a fetus. [B]Alito ruled that the Constitution does not afford protection to the unborn.[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]ââ¬Â¢ A 2000 challenge to New Jersey's ban on so-called partial-birth abortions. Alito struck down the law based on a recent Supreme Court decision.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]Analysts are divided over the meaning of Alito's votes and his various writings while on the bench.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]"I don't think these cases tell us anything about whether he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade or not," says James Bopp, general counsel for National Right to Life. "Nor do they tell us whether he supports pro-life as a value."[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]But Mr. Bopp says examining Alito's approach to deciding cases can reveal what kind of justice he might become. "In these cases he didn't go beyond the issues that needed to be resolved," he says. "He wasn't trying to create law. He was just carefully following the existing law."[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]Bopp says Alito's style of judging is likely to carry over to his work on the high court. "He's not a rookie. He's been doing this for 15 years," he says. "That usually doesn't change. He will do the same thing as a justice."[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]The Alito case receiving the most attention is his dissent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In his 15-page dissent, Alito said that while the provision might impose some limitation on a woman's ability to obtain an abortion it was not so severe as to rise to the level of an "undue burden."[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]The judge based that conclusion on his study of Justice O'Connor's writings on the issue.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]Alito's dissent says that the potential implications on women in abusive relationships were "a matter of grave concern" to him.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]But he added that it was for state lawmakers, not judges, to decide the wisdom of such measures. "Whether the legislature's approach represents sound public policy is not a question for us to decide," he wrote. "Our task here is simply to decide whether [the abortion law] meets constitutional standards."[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]The US Supreme Court took up the case the following year and used the case to broaden the "undue burden" standard, in a way that rejected Alito's analysis.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]But his work was not totally cast aside. Then Chief Justice William Rehnquist embraced and quoted the Alito dissent in his own dissent, which was joined by three other members of the court.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]Critics say Alito's dissent suggests he is not sensitive enough to the concerns of women. They see it as an example of his personal views on abortion influencing his approach to the law.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]Supporters say he made an honest effort to identify and apply O'Connor's "undue burden" standard as it existed at the time.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]In the 1995 Medicaid case, Alito cast the deciding vote striking down a Pennsylvania abortion restriction. Analysts say it was a close legal question and Alito could have decided the case either way.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Verdana, Geneva, Helvetica, san-serif;][SIZE=-1][COLOR=#000000]"If he has antiabortion philosophical leanings he did not let that warp his judgment in the case," says Seth Kreimer, professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and co-counsel on the winning side in the 1995 case. "But there are a lot more degrees of freedom at the Supreme Court level than at the court of appeals."[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[URL="http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1102/p01s04-usju.htm"]http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1102/p01s04-usju.htm[/URL]