We may not have to wait long before Alito makes his mark

February 1, 2006

Literally within hours of being sworn in as a Supreme Court justice, Samuel Alito sat alongside his new colleagues at the State of the Union. His impact as on the high court itself may not be quite that quick, but we may not have to wait too long before Alito makes a lasting impression.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. will have only one vote, of course, but it may be the decisive one in several of the marquee cases that will dominate the balance of the Supreme Court’s term.

By the end of the term in early summer, legal analysts said, the nation will most likely have a good sense of whether Justice Alito will affirm or veer away from the direction set by his predecessor, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, in cases involving the treatment of terror suspects and campaign finance.

And what’s likely to be the big issue? What else? Abortion rights.

The court will soon decide, for instance, whether to hear a case concerning the constitutionality of the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003, which would outlaw an abortion procedure. The law is quite similar to a Nebraska law struck down in 2000 by a 5-to-4 vote in Stenberg v. Carhart, with Justice O’Connor in the majority. Three federal appeals courts, two of them ruling on Tuesday, have held the federal law unconstitutional.

Just yesterday, coincidentally, the 9th Circuit and 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals both ruled against the federal ban on late-term abortions, following a similar ruling from the 8th Circuit. It only takes four justices to agree to hear a case on appeal, and Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas make four.

Granted, as the NYT noted, there is “no case on the horizon…that attacks the core holding of Roe v. Wade,” but it’s only a matter of time.

Call me cynical, but I bet Roe v. Wade won’t be overturned until after the elections. Because the GOP doesn’t want to lose that wedge issue in their national campaigns. And they sure as hell don’t want to be fighting it in the blue state statehouses.

Personally, I am looking forward to Roe being overturned, so we can have the first Presidential election in my memory when the candidate’s opinions on abortion don’t matter.

Of course, they’ll keep it alive by floating constitutional amendments, and bills on related pro-life issues like stem cells and right-to-die.

  • What’s the list of Democratic and pro-choice GOP senators who voted to confirm Alito? Because once he strikes down abortion rights, everybody should be questioning each of those senators why.

  • Seems to me the country will soon be experiencing a bad case of chronic Alitosis.

    And no amount of Scope or Listerine will be able to wash the germs away.

  • Alito et al are not going to vote to ‘overturn’ Roe and return abortion regulation to the states.

    They are going to find in the constitution a fetus’ right to life, and outlaw all abortions except those required to save the life of the mother.

    That’s my prediction.

  • Lance– I totally agree. I can’t imagine what would happen then. It’s not a scenario I’ve ever seen discussed.

    So much for the GOP’s support for “state’s rights.” Then again they’ve already discarded so many others– small government, fiscal responsibility. What do they really have left that is a core GOP belief? Opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage?

  • has anybody mentioned that Sandra Day O’Connor finally got to retire yesterday??

    Good on ya, Sandy Baby….

  • Democrats will not return to power as long as their only issue is the right to kill the unborn.

    All rants involve 1.) the right to use abortion as a means of birth control to the extent that a baby has its brains sucked out while in the birth canal. and 2.) keep taxes so high that all will consider abortion because the cost of raising a child are so high.

  • Re #8:

    Thank God for people on the other side who understand our values and our arguments so clearly. Here I thought we were more concerned with a court that is subservient to a President with unbridled power, that illegally grabs more power.

  • The Eighth, and now the Second and Ninth, Circuit Courts of Appeals have each struck down the recently passed partial birth abortion ban. They each argued the ban to be unconstitutional since it fails to take into acount the health of the mother. Not life life of mother … the health of the mother. That’s a lot of wiggle room (and we’re talking about late term, “partial birth”, abortion.

  • # 9 Thank you for making my point. Sucking the brains out of babies must be continued, and listening to calls from suspected terrorists during wartime must be stopped!

  • Oh, you’re talking about all your rants. Okay, that’s fine, just as long as you aren’t mischaractarizing the rest of us.

  • Then what are your positions. The opposition to Alito was his distaste for killing babies and the perception that he may side with the President when he uses his powers as Commander in Chief during wartime (its in the Constitution). Not a rant those are the positions stated by the Democrats. I applaude you for your ability to disparage my post as a rant rather than address the issues. I do not need to mischaracter the rest of you. Republicans win National elections when the DemocRAT positions are known.

  • Hey Bogie, maybe your brain got sucked like your zero, I mean hero, Bush. He is such an articulate speaker with his lofty IQ of 81. I can see why you aspire to be like him and continue to be a perpetual manure spreader for him. Maybe you can get a job at the Crawford ranch when you aren’t clubbing baby seals.

    As for Alito, his attack on Roe will be subtle, chipping away at it by imposing more counseling requirements and repeated return trips before the procedure can be done and things of that nature before it can be overturned directly. There will be some women that won’t have transportation available for repeated trips to one sole clinic in a state that has to conform to legally “revised” sanitation requirements.

    I propose someone start a television network and call it Polygraph TV. It could rebroadcast Shrub’s speeches and C-Span with real time lying.

  • I forgot to mention, after considering Bush’s speech, did you ever wonder why there are so many more horses’ asses than there are horses?

  • Well, no more waiting for Alito.

    He voted with the majority in a 6 to 3 decision to maintain a stay of execution on the grounds that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. Now the appeal on the constitutionality of lethal injection goes back to the appealite court.

    As my wife pointed out, opposition to the death penalty is the Catholic position, and there is now a Catholic majority on the court 😉

    But really, is there anyway to execute someone that is not cruel, in at least the anticipation. Even the guillotine leaves you with a head that has to suffer brain death, that takes eight to twelve minutes all told. No pain, just a horrible disorientation and slow fade to black.

    And on the other hand, public exposure in the stocks for a day seems to me to be a wonderful punishment. Could you imagine a better answer for Ken Delay or Martha Stewart. Wipe that attitude right off their smug faces. But this is one of the first methods of punishment deemed unconstitutional as Cruel and Unusual.

  • Re: #13

    Then what are your positions.

    http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/6500.html#comment-22379

    I just outlined some of our positions for someone else who (take note here) didn’t to introduce themselves with non-sequiters and insults. Note they do not include killing babies or raising taxes. Normally I’m not willing to be so helpful to someone who acts so trollishly, but you just got the benefit of someone else’s politeness.

    A word of advice though. If you are honestly interested in participating discussions with us here, lay off the insults and smears. I would personally appreciate it. I don’t go to Freerepublic or whatever right-wing site you hang out in and spout nonsense. Others may, and for them I apologize. But do unto others, man. If not, well, I hope CB gets rid of you.

    The opposition to Alito was his distaste for killing babies and the perception that he may side with the President when he uses his powers as Commander in Chief during wartime (its in the Constitution). Not a rant those are the positions stated by the Democrats.

    No, those aren’t what Democrats have stated their positions as. Those are our positions filtered through an antagonistic right-wing filter. I could say you hate the earth and are intent on destroying it, you hate minorities, you hate orphans, senior citizens, the sick and the poor. But I really don’t think you do. (Do you?)

    Every pro-choice supporter will take issue with equating abortion to simply “killing babies”, and just about every Democrat will point out (and you can count the number of times CB has in his posts) that wartime Presidential powers do not include ignoring the Constitution, creating laws, or ignoring laws created by Congress in their Constitutional role. If you still do not take issue with an omnipotenent President, as someone else here mentioned a few times, ask yourself how comfortable are you with giving these limitless powers to Hillary Clinton.

    I applaude you for your ability to disparage my post as a rant rather than address the issues.

    You haven’t actually raised any issues. Only attacked. That is what we call ranting.

    I do not need to mischaracter the rest of you.

    Then I suppose you are done here?

    Republicans win National elections when the DemocRAT positions are known.

    Republicans win positions when Republicans lie about and smear Democrat positions, just as you’ve been doing, and speak in slurs such as “DemocRAT.” (Rather than, say, “addressing issues”.)

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