Note:  Suzannah Porter, president of NOW-NJ is quoted in this article.  Subsequently, NOW has announced opposition to this nomination.

Supreme Court hopeful has a Seton Hall fan base

BY MATT MANOCHIO, DAILY RECORD, November 1, 2005

	GANNETT NEWS SERVICE Samuel Alito, a New Jersey resident, is President Bush's latest nominee to the Supreme Court.
	Nomination sure to stir partisian Senate cauldron   In nominating Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, President Bush has virtually assured a tough nomination fight in the Senate.  Both sides of the ideological divide have been bracing for an epic judicial fight like this for years. Question: Who is Samuel Alito? Answer: He’s a 55-year-old judge on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals with a long history as a judge and lawyer.  He’s a graduate of Princeton and Yale Law School, where he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal. Before becoming a judge 15 years ago, Alito was U.S. attorney in New Jersey.  Before that, he was a deputy assistant attorney general and a lawyer in the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office.  He’s argued a dozen cases on behalf of the federal government before the Supreme Court. Q: Has he faced Senate nomination approval before? A. Yes, in 1990, he was unanimously approved by voice vote to his current judicial position.  On Monday, Republicans dug out quotes from 1990 from liberal Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., praising Alito’s fair-mindedness and legal competence. Q. Does this mean Alito can look forward to a smooth confirmation process? A. Not unless liberals stop being liberals and conservatives stop being conservatives.  Left-wing interest groups such as Planned Parenthood and the People for the American Way already have lined up against Alito’s nomination, saying his record on the appeals court shows he’s hostile to privacy rights and civil rights.  But Alito will get strong backing from conservatives, many of whom turned against Bush’s previous nominee, Harriet Miers, because of a fuzzy judicial record.  Alito has been nicknamed “Scalito” by some conservatives — a favorable comparison to current Justice Antonin Scalia, a darling of the right. Q. What does Alito say about his judicial philosophy? A. He gave a strong hint after President Bush introduced him Monday morning. “Federal judges have the duty to interpret the Constitution and the laws faithfully and fairly, to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans and to do these things with care and restraint, always keeping in mind the limited role that the courts play in our constitutional system,” he said.  This is sweet music to conservatives, who have long criticized courts for judicial activism. Q. Are there other issues about Alito beyond his philosophy? A. Yes.  The fact that he’s a white male is likely to disappoint some groups who had pushed for a woman or minority nominee, especially because Alito was nominated to replace Sandra Day O’Connor, one of two women currently on the court. Q. Does Alito’s nomination change the politics in Washington? A. It sharpens partisan divisions and gives Bush an opportunity to go back on the offensive.  Alito’s nomination angers liberals but also inspires conservatives, Bush’s core supporters.  The president’s job-approval ratings have fallen to the lowest point of his presidency, and last week may have been the worst stretch of his five years on the job.  He not only lost the Miers nomination but a top aide was indicted in the investigation of who leaked the name of a CIA agent.  And Bush’s top political aide, Karl Rove, remains under investigation in that same case.  Alito’s nomination gives Bush’s best friends a new reason to rally around him. Q. What happens to the court if the nomination fight drags on? A. Business as usual.  O’Connor, who has announced she is retiring, has promised to stay on until her successor is approved.  Her vote on cases will count as long as she is on the court when the decisions are announced. Q. What happens next? A. The Senate Judiciary Committee will schedule hearings on Alito’s nomination before recommending to the full Senate that the nomination be approved or rejected.  The committee also has the option of making no recommendation at all. — Gannett News Service

Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. already has sparked a national debate over whether he should replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, but to those who know him at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, that case is closed.

"He's very, very well qualified to be on the United States Supreme Court," law school Dean Pat Hobbs said on Monday.

"The same things that were said about Chief Justice (John) Roberts could be said about him."

President Bush nominated Alito, who has been a federal judge for 15 years, to the nation's top court on Monday morning.

While serving as a judge on the Philadelphia-based court, Alito also served as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall Law School in 1999, teaching Constitutional Law I during the fall semester.

Alito also taught Constitutional Law II at the Newark-based school in the spring of 2000, and Terrorism and Civil Liberties in the spring of 2003 and 2004.

"I think he's really a warm, engaging person who brought tremendous dedication to the classroom," Hobbs said.

"Students really liked him.  His Terrorism and Civil Liberties classes were booked on the first day."

Richard J. Hughes Professor of Law Edward Hartnett said he first met Alito in the early 1990s when Alito was first seated and when Hartnett was a young lawyer who was creating a program about how lawyers could be better appellate advocates.

"The point of the story is that in a situation where he could have been dismissive or demanding, he was very ...respectful, modest and humble," Hartnett said.

Hartnett added that Alito's mild-mannered speech before the nation on Monday, in which he spoke of restraint and humility, is "not an act.  That's the real guy, a decent, humble, respectful guy who cares deeply about the law."

Hartnett and Hobbs, both of whom support the nomination, described Alito as a thoughtful researcher of law, not someone who issues bombastic screeds from the bench, but a polite jurist who listens carefully to all sides presented.

But Alito does have his critics.  This especially is because of an early 1990s dissent he wrote in Casey vs. Planned Parenthood, in which the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses.

Alito also has followed Supreme Court precedent in regard to abortion.  In 2000, for example, Alito was among the judges who ruled that a New Jersey law banning late-term abortions was unconstitutional, following high court precedent.

Suzannah Porter, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey National Organization for Women, said the national women's group hasn't released a statement yet.

"But we're guessing -- (and) I find it hard to believe -- that any women's issues organizations could support this nomination," Porter said.

"He has a long-documented history of opposing the rights of women, not just reproductive health care, but ... workplace issues, discrimination issues, not supporting workers' rights."

NOW N.J. also opposed the nomination of Roberts, who received strong, bipartisan Senate support with a 78-22 vote.

Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., also wasn't too warm about Alito's nomination.

"Fifteen years ago, I supported Samuel Alito to be a judge based on his record as the United States attorney for New Jersey, but his tenure on the appeals court has been marked by troubling decisions," Lautenberg said in a statement.

"Judge Alito has demonstrated a hostility to fundamental civil rights, and his record on the bench must be closely scrutinized by the Senate."

Fellow New Jersey Democrat Sen. Jon Corzine also issued a cautious statement about Alito.

"The Senate is not a rubber stamp, and I will take all actions necessary to ensure that the next justice is not an ideological activist who would reverse decades of progress on issues of choice, the right to privacy, civil rights, the rights of consumers, federalism, the scope of executive power, and government's ability to help those Americans who need it most,"Corzine said.

"While I look forward to learning all I can about Judge Alito, based on what I know so far, I am deeply concerned that he will dramatically shift the balance of the court to the right."

Both Corzine and Lautenberg voted against Roberts' confirmation.

Hartnett said he again met Alito while he was teaching at Seton Hall.  The two were on a committee at the law school that performed a self-review of the school's performance.

"Even after he had been on the bench he had an approach of being one member doing his job, not someone who let being a judge go to his head," Hartnett said.

Hobbs described Alito, who was born in Trenton, studied at Princeton University and received a Yale University law degree, as a "cautious jurist."

"He sticks very close to precedent,"Hobbs said.  "He doesn't venture out into directions that are not based in case law or statute."

Hartnett said it's a mistake to think that Alito will be an ideological clone of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to whom Alito often is compared.

"Too often there isn't an adequate divide between people's political views and their legal views ... people who want judges ... to give them the substantive results that they want.  Those who are critical of him, they're wrong, if they think he's going to be an ideological judge who enacts the Republican Party platform into law," Hartnett said.

"He's more dedicated to the rule of law than that."

The Associated Press contributed to this story. Matt Manochio can be reached at (973) 989-0652 or mmanochi@gannett.com.