Organizations Oppose Supreme
Court Nomination
by Lance Hegland
On October 31, 2005
President Bush announced his nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito,
Jr. as the United States Supreme Court Associate Justice to replace
the soon-to-be 75-year-old retiring Sandra Day O’Connor. Justice O’Connor
has served as an Associate Justice since being nominated by President
Reagan during September 1981.
Although the President of the United States has the sole authority
to nominate federal judges, the United States Senate has the power
to review, then either approve or reject those nominations. Once
approved, judges can serve for life, until they decide to retire,
or until they are impeached. However, judges can only be impeached
under a few specific circumstances and only after a congressional
impeachment process, which can be very time-consuming, therefore
rare.
The Supreme Court is
currently made up of one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices.
Because the Supreme Court has the final say in contested cases,
which are often hotly debated publicly and politically, the judges
serving on the Supreme Court hold significant public and political
power. Since there are only nine Supreme Court Justices and they
serve such long terms, it is rare for a President and a Congress
to have the opportunity to select a new Justice. When they do have
that chance, they have the advantage of impacting legal policy
far into the future – roughly 15 years on average. As
such, nominations are seriously deliberated by those on both sides
of important present and foreseeable issues. Only 75% of all Supreme
Court nominations actually are confirmed.
The key issues being
examined presently in relation to O’Connor’s
replacement generally center around civil rights laws, including
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation
Act, the Fair Housing Amendments Act, the Family and Medical Leave
Act (FMLA), voting rights, and abortion rights. Because the current
nomination was made by a Republican president and will be confirmed
by a Republican-controlled Senate, civil rights activists and Democrats
are wary.
According to White House
documents, Alito was born during 1950 in Trenton, New Jersey. He
received his bachelor’s degree from
Princeton University and attended Yale Law School. He has served
as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in an appellate division and has argued
several cases on behalf of the federal government in the U.S. Supreme
Court. Later, he served the Reagan Administration in the Office of
Legal Counsel as Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Afterward, he
became a U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Then, he was
appointed as a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third
Circuit where he has participated in thousands of appeals and authored
hundreds of opinions. In 1985, Alito married Martha-Ann Bomgardner,
with whom he has two children.
In an Internet petition,
ADA Watch called Alito “well outside
the mainstream of legal and public opinion.” The group intends
to hand-deliver the petition and is also urging disability-rights
supporters to send letters to Senators and pass on information about
the nominee’s record to others.
Despite his strong judicial background, opponents stress the following
concerns:
• a 1985 memo in which Alito appeared to endorse the overturning
of Roe v. Wade;
• a 1984 Justice Department memo Alito wrote expressing the view
that the Attorney General should be immune from suit over illegal wiretaps,
and indications that he supports the President and Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) having authority to authorize warrantless eavesdropping;
• his activities toward expanding law enforcement powers while
serving the Reagan administration; plus,
• his apparent disagreement with the electoral principle of one-man
one-vote and the ability to challenge arbitrarily drawn legislative
districts in federal court.
More specifically, the
aging and disability community is concerned, because Alito’s
rulings seem to suggest weak enforcement of specific laws that
broadly address community and employment discrimination and further
are the foundation for numerous other federal, state and local
laws protecting the rights of individuals experiencing disabilities,
according to the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
and the Fair Housing Amendments Act are among the principle protections
that the Bazelon Center alleges Alito opposes. They outlined their
beliefs within a report analyzing the following:
• a 2000 ruling
that Congress lacked the power to implement the unpaid leave portion
of the FMLA;
• a 1999 finding that a disability-rights group lacked legal standing
to sue the Department of Housing and Urban Development over failing
to enforce its own regulations;
• a decision in 2002 that depression and sleep disorders are not
covered by the ADA; and,
• his handling of cases that may imply his belief that the federal
government does not have the authority to force states to comply with
anti-discrimination laws.
The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is joined by numerous other
ADA Watch coalition partners opposed to Alito, including the Alliance
of Disability Advocates, Disability Rights Education and Defense
Fund (DREDF), National Association of Rights Protection and Advocacy
(NARPA), National Council on Independent Living, and World Association
of People with Disabilities.
US Senate Judiciary
Committee Chairman Arlen Specter will preside over Alito’s
confirmation hearing scheduled to begin January 9.
More information from
the Bazelon Center report, can be found on the Internet at www.bazelon.org/takeaction/alitosrecord.htm In
addition, ADA Watch has information, a petition of opposition,
and a sample letter of opposition to Senators located at www.adawatch.org/ Or,
contact your United States Senate representative directly. To find
your elected representative and the associated contact information,
visit: www.senate.gov/general/contact_information
or call 1-800-FED-INFO (1-800-333-4636).
