Democrats Ready to Go After Alito (WP) [View All]

[struggle4progress]

... Another committee Democrat, Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Alito in 1985 unequivocally stated "that the Constitution does not provide for a right to an abortion. The worst thing that could happen with Judge Alito is if he tries to duck the question" at the hearing. Unlike recently confirmed Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., Schumer said, Alito has expressed his personal and legal views on abortion so clearly that he cannot refuse to discuss them with senators by contending he must remain unbiased in case the Supreme Court revisits the issue ...

At the 1990 confirmation hearing for his seat on a federal appeals court, Alito told senators he would not rule in cases involving the Vanguard Group Inc. or Smith Barney Inc., firms that have handled some of his investments. However, he ruled in a 1996 case involving Smith Barney, and a 2002 case involving Vanguard ... Kennedy cited Vanguard, the Princeton alumni group and other matters in an op-ed piece, headlined "Alito's Credibility Problem," in Saturday's Washington Post ...

Alito wrote in a 1996 dissent that Congress did not have the power under the Constitution's commerce clause to pass a law banning possession of machine guns, arguing that there was no evidence the mere possession of such weapons affected interstate commerce.

"He was one of the very few to say that the federal government can't regulate machine guns," Schumer said yesterday. The federal government "has regulated machine guns since the days of John Dillinger in 1936."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010800794.html