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Action Needed
Background
All NOW Actions
Save the Court
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No on Alito
Contact your Senators and in no uncertain terms urge them to vote "NO"
on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Women's lives and women's rights are at great risk with this nominee, who will
surely vote to erode women's access to abortion, and eventually overturn Roe
v. Wade. Recently released documents reveal Judge Alito's ultra-conservative
credentials; he wrote in his application to become deputy assistant attorney
general in the Reagan administration, "I am particularly proud of my contributions
in recent cases in which the government argued that racial and ethnic quotas
should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to
an abortion." Based on his record on the circuit court, he would also
limit protections against discrimination based on race, gender and disability,
to name just a few.
Action Needed:
Contact your Senators and urge them to vote "NO"
on Alito.
Background:
Some court observers and law professors have placed Judge Alito to the right
of Justice Antonin Scalia in terms of conservative judicial philosophy. Judge
Alito is a clear opponent of reproductive freedom, protections for workers,
and other individual rights. In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania
v. Casey, Alito authored a solo 1991 dissent supporting a state law that
required women to inform their husbands before being permitted to obtain an
abortion. In his opinion, Alito brushed aside the concern that battered women
could face serious consequences if forced to discuss abortion with a violent
spouse, saying that the evidence "provides no basis for determining how
many women would be adversely affected." The Supreme Court rejected his
position in 1992.
Alito's decisions in a number of other cases demonstrate a rigid adherence to
"states rights" at the expense of those facing sex and race discrimination
and other civil rights violations. In one opinion, Chittister v. Department
of Community & Economic Development, Alito said Congress has no authority
to require state governments to give their employees leave under the Family
and Medical Leave Act. Even the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist disagreed
Alito's reasoning, and the Supreme Court reached a different result when it
considered a similar case.
Judge Alito's lone dissent in Sheridan v. E.I. Dupont de Nemours & Company
indicated that he would add difficult evidentiary hurdles for women who sue
for sex discrimination in the workplace under Title VII. His dissent in Bray
v. Marriott Hotels was described by the majority opinion as an attempt
to "eviscerate" use of Title VII in race discrimination cases by imposing
almost impossible evidentiary burdens on plaintiffs. Sadly these are just a
few of Judge Alito's many opinions which confirm our conclusion that if Judge
Alito ascends to the Supreme Court, civil rights and women's rights will be
in peril. Alito's record is also replete with decisions attacking the separation
of church and state, and permitting discrimination against people with disabilities,
seniors and immigrants.
Once you've emailed your Senators, please consider contributing to our fund to bring our volunteer grassroots activists to lobby their Senators in Washington, D.C. Donate NOW.
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