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Alito Nomination Sparks Supreme Court Battle

By Campbell Roth, Publications Coordinator

Feminists protested the Alito nomination the day it was announced, saying he is too extreme for the high court.

George W. Bush played a scary — and potentially life-threatening — trick on women and girls this Halloween, nominating Samuel Alito, an ultra-conservative federal appeals court judge, to replace swing vote Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. Alito was nominated just days after the withdrawal of Harriet Miers, the Bush nominee who had faced a concerted assault from the radical right wing because she didn't meet their conservative litmus test.

The same day Bush announced the new nomination, the National Organization for Women announced our opposition to Alito, who is regularly compared, in ideology and judicial philosophy, to far-right Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia. "Since Bush caved to the extremists' vicious campaign against Harriet Miers, women's rights supporters have been anticipating that he would bend to their will and appoint a judicial extremist of their choosing. He has done exactly that, and we are ready for the fight," said NOW President Kim Gandy.

Alito: A Few Key Cases

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 a 2000 opinion, Chittister v. Department of Community & Economic Development, Alito said Congress has no authority to penalize state governments for failing to comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Both O'Connor and the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist disagreed with Alito's interpretation, and both of them voted in support of the FMLA in a 2003 Supreme Court case which, in effect, reversed Alito's interpretation in a 6 to 3 vote. With John Roberts having replaced Rehnquist, and if Alito were to replace O'Connor, that decision could be reversed.

Standing Up for Women's Lives

NOW members and volunteers organized a protest in front of the Supreme Court on the afternoon of Alito's nomination to demonstrate our staunch opposition. NOW has been joined by many allies, including Feminist Majority, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America in opposing Alito.

Several senators quickly condemned Bush for pandering to his right-wing base with the pick. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, were among those who claimed that this nominee is out of the mainstream.

"The initial review of Judge Alito's record shows that there's a real chance that he will, like Justice Scalia, choose to make law rather than interpret law," Schumer told CNN.

NOW activists are participating in a series of "Speak-Out for Women's Lives" events leading up to the confirmation hearings. NOW urges members to come to Washington, D.C. before the hearings to speak to their senators about the importance of confirming a justice who supports women's rights to this crucial swing seat that has been held for 24 years by Sandra Day O'Connor, for whom NOW testified in her 1981 confirmation hearing. Activists also will be meeting with senators in their home offices around the country.

Feminists Gear Up for Battle

NOW Membership VP Latifa Lyles protests at the Senate.

Following the federal government's woeful response to Hurricane Katrina victims, the president's approval rating hit an all-time low — hovering below 40 percent — and continued to decline in the wake of indictments and investigations of trusted White House advisers and GOP leaders, including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee.

Bush's first nominee to replace Justice O'Connor, White House Counsel Harriet Miers, was met with severe criticism from right-wing Republicans, who said she was not qualified to serve on the high court and that she was not conservative enough. Just weeks after her nomination was announced, Miers withdrew.

The Bush administration is pushing hard to have the confirmation hearings completed by the end of the year, even if the senators have to return to Washington during the traditional year-end recess.

"It is absolutely critical that women, and men who care, make our opposition known," Gandy said, noting that O'Connor's fifth vote has upheld reproductive rights (including access to both birth control and abortion), Title IX equal education opportunities, affirmative action, and equal protection for women under the Constitution.

"NOW activists will be reaching out to their elected representatives in the U.S. Senate, across party lines, to remind senators of their responsibility to protect wome's rights and civil liberties," Gandy added. "If they do not, we will remember in November."