Alito: Personal Views Not A Factor

Senator: Court Nominee Assured Him They Won't Factor Into Rulings

(CBS/AP) 
Apart from the release of Reagan-era records from the National Archives, the White House Wednesday made public Alito's answers to a questionnaire from the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel plans confirmation hearings beginning Jan. 9, and majority Republicans hope for a final vote on his nomination on Jan. 20.

Asked to provide his views on judicial activism, Alito, 55 and a veteran of 15 years on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote that the courts "must engage in a constant process of self-discipline to ensure that they respect the limits of their authority."

Judges must "have faith that the cause of justice in the long run is best served if they scrupulously heed the limits of their role rather than transgressing those limits in an effort to achieve a desired result in a particular case," he added.

Alito's 1985 memo on abortion was a blend of personal belief, anger at previous high court rulings and cold-eyed political and legal judgment. On Wednesday it brought a renewal of Democratic doubts over his fitness for the court.

"The significant concerns raised by these documents only magnify the need for Judge Alito to explain whether he still holds the extreme views in his 1985 job application," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., on Wednesday. "He needs to make clear that he no longer questions constitutionally established remedies for discrimination and protections for the right to vote, and that he will not come to the court with an agenda to roll back women's rights."

Alito wrote his 1985 memo at a time the Supreme Court had agreed to hear appeals on two state laws restricting abortion rights. The justices "may be signaling an inclination to cut back," he said in the memo to the solicitor general.

He noted that the court had earlier rejected administration arguments in another case, reaffirming the 1973 abortion rights ruling in the process. "It is almost incredible that the court struck down an ordinance requiring the `humane and sanitary' disposal of aborted fetuses, he wrote, "a provision designed `to preclude the mindless dumping of aborted fetuses into garbage piles."'

He recommended the Justice Department weigh in on the new cases by making it clear it opposed the 1973 abortion ruling. At the same time, he argued that his approach was "free of the disadvantages that would accompany a major effort to overturn Roe. When the court hands down its decision and Roe is not overruled, the decision will not be portrayed as a stinging rebuke."

The memo was contained in Justice Department records that had been turned over to the Archives in 1999 by the Clinton administration, according to White House spokesman Steve Schmidt.

The administration refused to permit the release of similar documents during Roberts' confirmation, and Schmidt said "the rest of Alito's internal solicitor general's documents are still privileged and will not be released."