Church in the World

Alito poised for Supreme Court

Americas

SAMUEL ALITO seems almost certain to be confirmed by the Senate and take his seat as one of the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court following his appearance before the Judiciary Committee of Congress?s upper chamber this week. For the first time the Court has a Catholic majority, and possibly a majority willing to revisit Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 decision that found a Constitutional guarantee of legal abortion.

In 18 hours of questioning before the committee, Judge Alito managed to avoid repudiating his evident opposition to abortion, particularly as a White House lawyer during the Reagan administration, saying only that he would approach abortion cases with ?an open mind?. Conventional wisdom until recently was that judges too obviously against Roe could not easily be confirmed to the Supreme Court, at least when nominated to seats previously held by supporters of Roe.

In September it was thought that the current Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Roberts, won a convincing Senate vote to a seat previously held by a conservative, because he had only recently become a judge, and had a minimal ?paper trail?. But in the event Judge Alito, with 15 years on the bench and a large number of conservative rulings behind him, notably on the controversial issue of presidential power, faced only mild interrogation from the Democrats.

With testimony from Judge Alito completed, the judiciary committee is due to vote on his candidacy on Tuesday. Here he is assured of approval, for all 10 Republicans have indicated their support. A full Senate vote is due to be held on 31 January. There was some dispute over these dates. Commentators suggested the Democrats wanted a delay to rally opposition not because they hoped to block the nomination, but to reduce the majority as a warning to the President about the next nomination.

That may soon occur. The Court at the moment has a majority of five to four in favour of Roe and abortion. Of the pro-Roe majority, Justices Anthony Kennedy (a pro-abortion Catholic), Breyer and Ginsburg (Jewish), and Souter (Episcopalian) are over 65, while John Paul Stevens (a Protestant) is 85, and it seems unlikely that he will wait until the next presidency to retire.
Richard Major, New York