The extreme right applauded what they heard from Samuel Alito last week during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. As we noted with concern last week, Judge Alito refused to say that he believes the Constitution protects the right to choose or that Roe v. Wade is settled law. For that very reason, anti-choice groups have concluded that they will get just what they are looking for if Alito is confirmed. Here is what some anti-choice advocates and commentators had to say:
The Christian Coalition of America, a group founded by Pat Robertson, was thrilled that Alito did not respond to the attempts by some Senators to “force [him] into retracting his positions on abortion,” declaring they were left with “no doubt he considers that Roe v. Wade was a wrongly decided issue.” They noted that President Bush had promised he would appoint Supreme Court justices in the mold of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, and concluded that President Bush “has delivered his promised in the person of . . . Judge Samuel A. Alito.” (Scalia and Thomas, don’t forget, have both opined in dissents that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled.)
The National Right to Life Committee was pleased that Judge Alito resisted saying that Roe was settled law, and in an article on their website enthusiastically proclaimed, “Settled law? Anything but!”
An article in Human Events Online, a conservative publication, observed – just as we did last week -- that Alito “clearly [left] the door open to overturning Roe, noting that stare decisis was not ‘an inexorable command.’”
So there you have it: the anti-choice folks agree with us on what is likely to happen if Alito is confirmed. It’s their fervent dream – and our worst nightmare.
