Alito Explains Abortion Statement

Distances Himself From Comment That There's No Right To Abortion

(CBS/AP)  Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito distanced himself Tuesday from his 1985 comments that there was no constitutional right to abortion, telling a senator in private that he had merely been "an advocate seeking a job."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., an abortion rights supporter and the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said she asked the conservative judge about a document released Monday (.pdf) showing Alito in 1985 telling the Reagan administration he was particularly proud to help argue that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."

"He said first of all it was different then," she said. "He said, 'I was an advocate seeking a job, it was a political job and that was 1985. I'm now a judge, I've been on the circuit court for 15 years and it's very different. I'm not an advocate, I don't give heed to my personal views, what I do is interpret the law."'

Feinstein, who will be one of the senators questioning Alito at his Jan. 9 confirmation hearing said she thought "he was very sincere in what he said."

Alito did not respond to reporters' questions about the document before meeting Feinstein. "I'm just here to speak with Sen. Feinstein," Alito said as he entered the meeting.

But senators say the 1985 statement means that he will have to talk about his opinion on abortion when he appears before the Judiciary Committee Jan. 9 for his confirmation hearings.

"I think that it is more reason to question him closely at the hearing," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who will run Alito's hearing as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Specter, an abortion rights moderate, said a lot of people have shifted their views about abortion over the years and that he has found Alito to have "a very heavy commitment to legal interpretation which might differ from his own personal views."

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called the 1985 document "the strongest statement we've seen from a nominee on this very controversial subject for a long time."

Schumer said it "puts a much stronger onus on Judge Alito to answer questions on this subject."

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.

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."