**sorry for the weird symbols in places where there should be quotation marks and apostrophes, it's a formatting issue I'm trying to fix**

SCOTUS nominee Samuel Alito believes that the Constitution does not protect the right for a woman to have an abortion.

From the Washington Post

He also noted that he disagreed with the Warren Court's decisions "in the areas of criminal procedure, the Establishment Clause and reapportionment." Reapportionment? By far the most notable reapportionment decision of the Warren Court was its famous one-man, one-vote ruling, which required state legislatures to create districts of equal population.

Samuel Alito’s Record on Disability Issues

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of Judge Alito's record is his narrow interpretation of the powers that authorize Congress to pass 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) and other laws of importance to people with disabilities. His rulings demonstrate cramped views of Congress's powers that would put critical disability rights laws at risk.

The op-ed linked earlier from the WaPo sums up Alito very well, “Alito's memo to Meese was, to be sure, a job application, and the assertions people make when applying for jobs tend to the hyperbolic. But Sam Alito comes off as one of nature's straight shooters, and I see no reason to take his declarations as anything other than accurate representations of his beliefs. Which means, unless he's reversed his thinking or unless deference to precedent trumps his deepest beliefs on constitutionality, that Justice Samuel Alito would, given the opportunity, abolish a woman's federal right to reproductive choice. It's not personal for him; it's constitutional. But it's plenty personal for the American people.”

Ok, so I’m not quite done with Alito…There was an op-ed (Too Perfect to Know the People?) from way back in September that I blogged about (9/8 to be exact). It was on John Roberts, but the same holds true for Sam Alito especially in light of his views toward those whom the judiciary should support most.

I offer you pieces of that op-ed (edited to apply to Alito rather than Roberts)

I sometimes think the best thing that ever happened to me was, at the time, the worst: I flunked out of college. I did so for the usual reasons -- painfully bored with school and distracted by life itself -- and so I went to work for an insurance company while I plowed ahead at night school. From there I went into the Army, emerging with a storehouse of anecdotes. In retrospect, I learned more by failing than I ever would have by succeeding. I wish that [Samuel Alito] had a touch of my incompetence.

Instead, the nominee for associate justice of the United States Supreme Court punched every career ticket right on schedule. He was raised in affluence, educated in private schools, dispatched to [Princeton] and then to [Yale] Law School. [He clerked for a U.S. appellate judge (Leonard I. Garth) and was a United States Attorney during the Regan administration. He now has 15 years as a judge on the Third Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals.]
…
Failure has its uses. Among other things, it can teach us about the human condition. It took a certain kind of cold arrogance to come up with the evacuation plan that New Orleans devised: Get everyone out of town. But what about those who could not get out of town? What about those with no cars or those already living on the streets? In other words, what about the very poor?

The poor? It's as if the idiots up and down the line never heard of them. It's as if no one at the top of the Federal Emergency Management Agency or at the White House knew they existed. Check that. They knew, but it was theoretical: Oh, they'll manage. The thinking was summed up in the sorry remark of Barbara Bush while she was visiting flood evacuees at a Houston relocation site. Since the refugees sent to Houston were poor to start with, she said, "this is working very well for them." Madam, bite thy tongue.

If I had a vote in the Senate, I would not deny it to [Alito] based on his lack of tough times -- nor, for that matter, would I have granted one to Clarence Thomas, who had plenty of them. But when it comes to civil rights, to women's rights, to workers' rights, to gay rights and to the plight of the poor, I would prefer that [Alito] had had his moment of failure. He will [be an integral part of] one branch of the government. I wish he knew more about all of the people.

The Democrats need to send a message that this nomination is not within the mainstream and fight it tooth and nail. I’m still quite hesitant to make a prediction one way or the other as to Alito’s confirmation. He should not be confirmed, but the cards are still in his favor at this point, slightly.

Peace.