October 31, 2005 | Sex & Society

Surprise! High Court nominee is conservative

After failing to place his friend Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court, President George W. Bush has nominated U.S. Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito for the post.  The nomination was greeted warmly by right-wingers intent on imposing a conservative vision of America through the highest court in the land.

Unlike Miers, Alito has a long judicial record from which it is easier to draw inferences about how he would rule on key controversial issues dear to the hearts of conservatives. For example, in a 1991 case Alito  was the only member of a judicial panel who thought that a Pennsylvania law requiring married women to notify their husbands before having an abortion was not an "undue burden."

Progressives are concerned that should the next Supreme Court judge be a right-winger the ideological balance of the Court will be thrown off,  much to the detriment of women, visible minorities and gays (not to mention consumers of pornography.)
 
The not so terrible news is that as an Appeals Court judge Alito has tended to respect judicial precedent, so it is unlikely that, should the landmark abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade come before the Court, he would see fit to overturn it.

Because so much is riding on the next Supreme Court appointment we can expect a long and nasty fight over Alito's confirmation.

• Alito leans right where O'Connor swung left [Washington Post]
• Supreme Court nominee alarms gay groups [gay.com]