Supreme Court Watch: Anti-Alito forces ready for battle
Liberal activists say they are preparing to end Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito's "honeymoon" period starting next week with an all-out campaign to sink the nomination by the time it reaches the Senate floor in mid-January. The effort comes at a time when some conservatives say they are so confident of Alito's confirmation prospects that they're looking ahead to potential future Supreme Court vacancies.
But Nan Aron of the Alliance for Justice said liberal and progressive activists are preparing a "much, much larger" fight than the one mounted after the nomination of now-Chief Justice John G. Roberts, whose limited judicial record–two years on the D.C. Appeals Court–gave opponents little fodder earlier this year. The conservative Alito, who would replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, "is not a stealth candidate," says Aron. "He has a long record; a troubling one and a recent one. The opportunities are much more beneficial going into a fight over the Alito nomination."
The organizations will launch their effort at a joint press conference next week and will begin a series of local and national advertisements highlighting Alito's positions on issues ranging from racial discrimination to the sale and possession of machine guns. They also are mobilizing law professors and students to disseminate information culled from Alito's opinions and dissents from his 15 years on the Third Circuit appeals court and earlier as a Reagan administration lawyer.
Aron's group yesterday morning released a survey that it says shows "tepid" public support for the nominee and a desire for the new justice to have a judicial philosophy similar to or less conservative than O'Connor's. The early November survey of 804 voters by Peter D. Hart Research Associates also shows that 43 percent of those surveyed favor Alito's confirmation, while 27 percent oppose it.
Also Thursday, Democrats reiterated their plans to more closely scrutinize Alito's failure in 2002 to recuse himself from a case involving the Vanguard Group, despite his significant investments in its mutual funds. In a questionnaire submitted during his 1990 appeals court confirmation hearings, Alito pledged not to participate in Vanguard cases to avoid a conflict of interest. The PoliticalMoneyLine watchdog group reported Thursday that at the end of last year, Alito listed 12 Vanguard investments valued between $425,000 and $950,000.