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The White House decided to employ a politically-palatable, pundit-prescribed exit strategy with the withdrawal of Harriet Miers. Because of that, Miss Miers is no longer a nominee to the United States Supreme Court, and much of America may believe the Bush Administration's contention that she withdrew over a request for documents. In actuality, she withdrew because her 1993 pro-abortion speech came to light, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back for the great Dr. James Dobson, Senator Sam Brownback, Senator John Thune, and any members of the conservative base who had reserved judgment up to that point....

WASHINGTON -- Pop quiz: Which of the following abortion regulations is more restrictive, more burdensome, more likely to lead more women to forgo abortion?(a) Requiring a minor to get the informed consent of her parents, or to get a judge to approve the abortion.(b) Requiring a married woman to sign a form saying that she notified her husband.Can any reasonable person have any doubt? A minor is intrinsically far more subject to the whims, anger, punishment, economic control and retribution of a parent. And the minor is required to get both parents involved in the process and to get them...

It is premature to pronounce the job completed, but with the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals for a seat on the Supreme Court, George Bush has substantially narrowed the rift with his conservative base he created with his nomination of Harriet Miers. Ms. Miers, a woman of many fine qualities, was perceived as simply lacking the constitutional sophistication to withstand the pressures of a liberal Court majority and its allies in the academy and the media sufficiently to help bring the Court back from its self-assumed role as a political rather than...

The Republican-controlled Senate will begin hearings Jan. 9 on Judge Samuel Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court, spurning President Bush's call for a final confirmation vote before year's end. "It simply wasn't possible to accommodate the schedule that the White House wanted," Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said late Thursday. He outlined a schedule that envisions five days of hearings, followed by a vote in committee on Jan. 17 and the full Senate on Jan. 20. Bush nominated Alito on Monday to fill the seat of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has often held the...

Judges who have served with Samuel Alito say he's unquestionably a conservative who would push the Supreme Court to the right, likely favoring new abortion restrictions that retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would not. Five current or former judges on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals interviewed by The Associated Press described Alito as thoughtful, intelligent and fair. They said he has great respect for precedent-setting decisions and none of them offered that he would be likely to vote to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. O'Connor, whom Alito was tapped to replace by President...

"The conservative screamers who shot down [Harriet] Miers can argue that they were fighting only for a 'qualified' nominee. . . . But whatever the rationale, the fact is that they short-circuited the confirmation process by raising hell with Bush. . . . A cabal of outsiders--a lynching squad of right-wing journalists, self-sanctified religious and moral organizations, and other frustrated power-brokers--[rolled] over the president they all ostensibly support." --David Broder, Washington Post, Nov. 2       Nothing like the calming tones of The Dean to bring context and a needed sense of perspective to the proceedings. In his comments on Sunday's "Meet the Press" and in his...

As far as anyone yet knows, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. has not made any public declaration calling for the overruling of Roe v. Wade , the 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized a constitutional right to abortion. At least on the surface, Alito's record as an appeals court judge contains something for everyone. In 1991, he voted to uphold a Pennsylvania law that would have required married women to notify their husbands before getting an abortion. In 1995, however, he cast a deciding vote on a three-judge panel to strike down what abortion rights advocates saw as Pennsylvania's onerous...

In the great Alito-Scalito debate, everyone makes one mistake: They seem to assume that if Samuel Alito is as conservative as Antonin Scalia, that's about as conservative as a judge can be. Not so. In important ways, Samuel Alito could prove more conservative than Antonin Scalia. And the record suggests he will.Yes, Alito shares Justice Antonin Scalia's ambivalence toward judicial activism. Both men tout their own restraint in deferring to majorities that step on individual rights (including a woman's decision whether to bear a child). Both men also act aggressively to override majorities that touch states' rights like sovereign immunity...

Here's what you should understand about the claim that Judge Sam Alito "favors legal machine guns": It's a lie. It is also a sound bite from the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence that has been picked up by a host of pundits who would rather caricature a legal opinion than understand it. " 'Machine Gun Sammy,' a perfect Halloween pick," is how the Brady Campaign headlined President Bush's latest Supreme Court nominee. But what the Brady activists failed to acknowledge is that Alito's dissent in the 1996 case United States v. Rybar had nothing to do with a desire...

It looks like the third time was the charm for the Federalist Society. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has long been an active participant in the conservative legal society, an influential group that sometimes goes to great lengths to play down its influence. Alito has been a member for at least 15 years and has spoken before both the national organization and its student chapters on a number of occasions. That's a welcome change for the group after the last two Supreme Court nominations: -John Roberts, the new chief justice, is well-liked by Federalist Society members but belatedly denied he'd...

George W. Bush has nominated Judge Samuel Alito of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to the Supreme Court. Judge Alito has a strong record academically and in government. He was U.S. attorney for New Jersey, a high-pressure job in a state where corruption is—how shall we say this?—not unknown. To be confirmed for that position, Alito would have to have been approved by New Jersey's two Democratic senators at the time, Bill Bradley and Frank Lautenberg, the latter of whom is again serving in the Senate. From my knowledge of those two men, I believe they...

The nomination of Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court raises a lot of questions about the judge's attitudes toward federalism, privacy and civil rights. But it has already answered one big question about President Bush. Anyone wondering whether the almost endless setbacks and embarrassments the White House has suffered over the last year would cause Mr. Bush to fix his style of governing should realize that the answer is: no. As a political candidate, Mr. Bush had an extremely useful ability to repeat the same few simple themes over and over. As president, he has been cramped by the...

There's a paradox in George W. Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. The coming fight might not be good for Alito, but it's going to be great for Bush. To get anywhere in politics, you need a base. Of course, you also need a majority, but first you need strong supporters - only then can you build toward 50 percent plus one. The base was what Bush was in danger of losing, thanks to government overspending and the disastrously failed nomination of Harriet Miers. By appointing Alito, Bush has taken a big step toward reclaiming his base....

As an appeals court judge, Samuel Alito has compiled a massive record that includes more than 240 opinions. Of these, the most illuminating may well be his 41 dissents -- opinions that he has written by himself, rejecting the views of his colleagues. When they touch on issues that split people along political lines, Alito's dissents show a remarkable pattern: They are almost uniformly conservative. In the overwhelming majority of cases, he has urged a more conservative position than that of his colleagues. In his dissents, at least, he has been a conservative's conservative -- not always in his reasoning,...

WASHINGTON -- With the nomination of Samuel Alito, the nation's long-term needs and the president's immediate needs converge. Our nation properly takes its political bearings, always, from the Constitution, properly construed on the basis of deep immersion in the intellectual ferment of the Founding Era that produced it. That is why our democracy inescapably functions under some degree of judicial supervision. The nation has long needed a serious debate about the proper nature of that supervision. And the president needed both a chance to demonstrate his seriousness and an occasion to challenge his Democratic critics to demonstrate theirs in a...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Mike DeWine said he would back conservative threats to change Senate rules to ban filibusters of judicial nominees if anyone dared to use the tactic to challenge President Bush's latest Supreme Court choice. The Republican from Ohio took a lot of criticism from conservatives when he helped forge a deal with Democrats preserving the minority party's right to filibuster nominees, but only in "extraordinary circumstances." The compromise stopped a logjam in the Senate over Bush's nominees to lower courts. DeWine said the latest Supreme Court nominee, veteran appeals court Judge Samuel Alito, is "within the mainstream...

This is it. Do you understand? We're ready for this debate. We can win this debate. We're up against a bunch of people that don't have any ideas. We're up against a bunch of people that can't be honest about who they are, but they care so much about this court they have no choice but than to be honest about who they are.

THE ONE THING people seem to know for sure about Samuel Alito is his nickname: "Scalito." The name is meant to denote Alito's similarities to associate Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, whom the Senate confirmed, on Ronald Reagan's urging, to the Court in 1986. It's a catchy moniker, and rolls off the tongue, and may, if the media takes its cues from the press release manufacturers at the Democratic National Committee, become the catchphrase of Alito's upcoming Senate confirmation hearings.Which would be a shame. The nickname is misleading. The two men may share a vowel at the end of their...

WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush nominated veteran judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court Monday, seeking to reshape the judiciary and mollify conservatives who derailed his previous pick. Ready-to-rumble Democrats said Alito may curb abortion rights and be "too radical for the American people." Drawing an unspoken contrast to failed nominee Harriet Miers, Bush declared that the appeals court judge "has more prior judicial experience than any Supreme Court nominee in more than 70 years." Abortion emerged as a potential fault line. Democrats pointed to Alito's rulings that sought to restrict a woman's right to abortion. Senate Judiciary Committee...

WELL, THAT'S MORE LIKE IT. In Judge Sam Alito, President Bush has chosen a more plausible High Court nominee. Make that a much more plausible nominee. His legal qualifications are exceptional, his character widely attested. And having spent 15 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, he has demonstrated an approach to judging that clearly identifies him as a judicial conservative. Two points are worth noting on day one of this nomination. The first is Alito's legal experience. His many years on the Third Circuit mean that he knows the labor of an appellate judge,...