Posted on 12/02/2005 10:33:25 AM PST by Jean S
WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, who expressed strong opposition to abortion rights two decades ago, pledged Friday that his personal views on the subject "would not be a factor" in his rulings, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Alito had told him in a private meeting that "with respect to his personal views on a woman's right to choose ... that is not a matter to be considered in the deliberation on a constitutional issue of a woman's right to choose. The judicial role is entirely different."
Specter, who supports abortion rights, said he was neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with what he had heard earlier in his office, and emphasized that he would question Alito vigorously about the issue at confirmation hearings scheduled to begin Jan. 9.
The sequence of events _ the private meeting followed by Specter's news conference _ came after days of controversy sparked by 20-year- old documents in which Alito expressed his opposition to abortion in stark terms.
In one, a sort of job application, Alito wrote in 1985 that he did not believe abortion rights were provided by the Constitution. In the other, a legal memo released on Wednesday, he counseled other lawyers in the Justice Department on a strategy for chipping away at abortion rights, with the eventual goal of overturning a landmark 1973 ruling on the subject.
alito also assured specter that the "magic bullet" made perfect sense to him.
If Alioto's personal views are not going to affect his rulings, then he will be the first Justice in decades
for whom that has not been true.
All the other liberal judges seem to think that their personal feelings should take precedence over the Constitution, anyway.
Alito's personal views actually don't determine whether the Constitution can be construed to provide a "right" to abortion. It's only his judicial views that make the difference. I think that's why the Spectre of Doom wasn't satisfied.
Is Arlen possibly working himself up to a "no" vote on Alito?
It will be what his handlers tell him.
Perhaps the worms will get him before he votes.
What else could he say?
Unfortunately, the pro-death squads still have another month to stir up trouble for Alito, and the MSM will be behind them a hundred percent.
It's great that he says he won't let his personal views get in the way, but this does nothing to prove whether he will vote for it as a judge. He never blatantly stated how he would vote as a judge. He just said he won't let his personal views get in the way.
What is it with Spector and abortion? He is one sick infanticide lover.
He's obsessed with the topic, it's creepy.
I did not elect Sphinkter. He should get the hell out of our business. This guy is pissing me off. Since when does he speak for me?
Pennsylvanian's sure have some splain'in to do regarding there elected officials. Hit Republicans like Sphinkter, who needs enemies?
Well then. You said it, not me.
"Hit Republicans like Sphinkter"
I like that Froidian slip.
Would Senator Specter please give us all a HUGE Christmas present and disappear from the face of this earth...
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