No Right To Abortion, Alito Wrote

Nominee Said In 1985 He Believes 'Very Strongly' In Position

(CBS/AP) 
O'Connor has been a crucial swing vote on abortion on the Supreme Court, and Alito's opponents fear that he and recently confirmed Chief Justice John Roberts would swing the Supreme Court to the right and lead to the overturning of the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision establishing abortion rights.

Alito "joins a long list of jurists who have written that Roe was wrongly decided, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg before she was confirmed to the court," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Judiciary Committee. "The question is whether he will put his personal views aside as any judge should and base his rulings on what the Constitution says. His long track record as a federal appeals court judge shows that he has indeed put his personal views on abortion aside, and I have every confidence he will continue to do so."

The document was included in more than 100 pages of material about Alito released by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library on Monday.

Some abortion rights groups already have come out against Alito because of his work as a federal appellate judge, including a dissent on an appeals court decision striking down a law requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses.

But White House spokesman Steven Schmidt said Alito's 15 years as a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shows "a clear pattern of modesty, respect for precedent and judicial restraint."

CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports Alito has been telling senators privately that his belief in the importance of settled law, including Roe v. Wade trumps his own views.

When he wrote this document, he was working as an assistant to the solicitor general, where he stayed from 1981 to 1987. Although he sought the job of deputy assistant attorney general in 1985, he did not win that job until 1987.

In the document, Alito declared himself a "lifelong registered" Republican and a Federalist Society member, and said he had donated money to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the National Conservative Political Action Committee and several GOP candidates.

"I am and always have been a conservative and an adherent to the same philosophical views that I believe are central to this administration," Alito said.

Alito also wrote that he believed "very strongly in limited government, federalism, free enterprise, the supremacy of the elected branches of government, the need for a strong defense and effective law enforcement and the legitimacy of a government role in protecting traditional values."

The 1985 document on abortion was first reported by The Washington Times in Monday editions.

Kennedy, who is also a Judiciary Committee member, wrote Alito on Monday questioning his explanations for ruling on a Vanguard case after telling the committee in 1990 that he would recuse himself from cases involving that company.

Alito holds six-figure investments with Vanguard.

In a Thursday letter, Alito told senators he was "unduly restrictive" in promising to avoid Vanguard's appeals cases, and he did not believe he was required to disqualify himself on the basis of ownership of shares in a mutual fund. The White House has added that there was a computer glitch that allowed the disqualification issue to slip through undetected.

The Vanguard name was prominent throughout the case, Kennedy said. "Surely, whatever the system, the oversight should have been obvious when the case reached you," the letter said.