Ok Ladies, Time to Dust Off the Coat Hanger

Alright. Obviously there is a lot of buzz within the blogosphere regarding Bush’s new Supreme Court pick (oh and I do applaud him for picking someone who actually has judicial experience, and is not located 21 feet down the hall from his office. It’s a learning curve, folks).

There’s really no opinion I can write here that isn’t already being shared at this very moment via the blog entries and comments on the Liberal Trinity – Dailykos, Americablog, and Crooks & Liars. The guy is about as conservative as one can get - and by conservative I mean he constantly legislates from the bench.

I would, however, like to take a small snapshot of some highlights spanning Alito’s career.

Here are four things you should know about him based on his work as a judge:


Judge Alito is not a big fan women’s reproductive health, their personal privacy or those in abusive relationships.

In a 1991 decision striking down a Pennsylvania law that would have required a woman to tell her husband that she planned to have an abortion (and made her offer proof of doing so), Alito was the lone dissenter. Think about this for a second. If you’re pregnant and in an abusive relationship, you can probably attest to why this was a terrible law. If you’re not in a violent relationship, this scenario happens more than you might think.

And don’t just take my word for it. The scumbags over at operation rescue (that’s the pro-life group who kills people in abortion clinics) had this to say about Mr. Alito:
“Roe’s days are numbered. We are trusting that we are now on the fast-track to derailing Roe v. Wade as the law of the land.”

Judge Alito is not really a big fan of women after they give birth, either.

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) “guarantees most workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a loved one.” Enacted under the Clinton Administration, the FMLA guarantees eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave for a serious illness, to care for a seriously ill family member, or to care for a newborn or newly adopted child. In a 2000 case, Alito used his judicial position to “prevent the federal government from enforcing civil rights protections.” Alito held that Congress overstepped its authority under the Fourteenth Amendment and therefore had no power to require employers to comply with the FMLA. In 2003, the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist led the majority that overturned Alito’s decision.

Judge Alito is not really a big fan of women period.

In Doe v. Groody, Alito agued that police officers had not violated constitutional rights when they strip searched a mother and her ten-year-old daughter while carrying out a search warrant that authorized only the search of a man and his home

Judge Alito – not really a big fan of “the blacks.”

Throughout his career, Alito has been willing to push the boundaries of the law for big business. In Bray v. Marriott Hotels (1996), Marriott sought to deny the plaintiff, an African-American woman, the right to present her case of racial discrimination. Alito sided with Marriott, while the majority siding with Bray criticized Alito for overstepping his judicial role and "acting as a factfinder [and] taking it upon himself to interpret the meaning of the deposition testimony of one of the defendants."

Finally, I think Slate Magazine's article on Alito says it best:

Best of all for Bush's base, Alito is the kind of "restrained" jurist who isn't above striking down acts of Congress whenever they offend him. Bush noted this morning: "He has a deep understanding of the proper role of judges in our society. He understands that judges are to interpret the laws, not to impose their preferences or priorities on the people."

Except, of course, that Alito doesn't think Congress has the power to regulate machine-gun possession, or to broadly enforce the Family and Medical Leave Act, or to enact race or gender discrimination laws that might be effective in remedying race and gender discrimination, or to tackle monopolists.