Posted on 11/30/2005 10:44:46 AM PST by West Coast Conservative
Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. was an architect of the Reagan administration's failed 1985 attempt to have the high court consider overruling Roe v. Wade, according to a memo from the period released today.
Alito, then a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, urged the solicitor general to use a case before the court to "make clear that we disagree with Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether, and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled."
In the memo, Alito suggested that the government challenge Roe in a friend-of-the-court brief in an abortion case that itself did not challenge the 1973 decision legalizing abortion. This approach, he wrote, is better than a "frontal assault."
"It has most of the advantages of a brief devoted to the overruling of" Roe , he wrote. "It makes our position clear, does not even tacitly concede Roe 's legitimacy, and signals that we regard the question as live and open."
He added that the approach was "free of many of the disadvantages that would accompany a major effort to overturn Roe . When the court hands down its decision and Roe is not overruled," he reasoned, the decision "will not be portrayed as a stinging rebuke" to the administration.
In a previously released document, Alito had expressed pride in contributing to the Reagan administration's policies, including its view that there was no right to abortion embodied in the Constitution.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
OK. I am convinced. Alito is perfect for SCOTUS.
Glad the WAPO cleared that up.
It's no secret among pro-abortion types that Roe is bad law. But it's "their" bad law and they don't want it questioned on any level.
I find it amusing that leftists and democrats who spew everyday about how it's good to have debate and good to voice your opposition, that they are so unwilling to re-visit, re-debate and hear the oppositions voice (and it's at least 50% of the country) on Roe!
Tolerant Libs! An oxymoron.
---"OK. I am convinced. Alito is perfect for SCOTUS"---
Schadenfreude on my part. I am going to love seeing the libs deal with his confirmation and getting to within one vote of overturning Roe v. God.
Just imagine if the rumors are true and Stevens does retire early next year!!!!! Wow!
If the libs were serious about abortion as anything other than a political contribution ponzi scheme, they would ask that it be made a Constitutional amendment and let the country decide.
Same with Gay rights.
The lefties don't want voters deciding anything - hell, not even elections.
Those with a strong judicial mind like Alito know that Roe v. Wade was poorly decided in terms of the judicial merits. Good to know once again that Alito subscribes to this belief.
I think they all KNOW that it was poorly decided on the basis of both constitutional and judicial merit. Sadly, too many don't follow that knowledge and instead hold up the right to kill babies as "constitutional".
I predict a filibuster and Constitutional Option test for the RINOs. If the filibuster is successful will Catholics and Italians be PO'd?
"The lefties don't want voters deciding anything - hell, not even elections."
Boy is that true... if they actually found out what this country is thinking, they might be surprised.
The good thing about Alito is that he has the perspective that they lack.
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