Biden: Chance of Alito Filibuster Higher

Posted on November 20, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) – The views that Samuel Alito expressed on reapportionment in a 20-year-old document could jeopardize his Supreme Court nomination and provoke a filibuster, a leading Democratic senator said Sunday.

“I think he’s got a lot of explaining to do, and depending on how he does, I think will determine whether or not he has a problem or not,” said Sen. Joseph Biden, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which plans confirmation hearings in early January.

In 1985, Alito was applying to become deputy assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration. In the document, he boasted that while working as an assistant to the solicitor general, he helped “to advance legal positions in which I personally believe very strongly.”

Drawing the most attention from Alito’s critics today is his comment on abortion.

“I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government argued that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion,” wrote Alito, now a federal appeals court judge.

But Biden, D-Del., said he was most troubled by Alito’s comment about reapportionment under the Supreme Court when it was led by Chief Justice Earl Warren.

The Warren Court, as it became known, ended public school segregation and established the election principle of one-man one-vote.

“The part that jeopardizes it (Alito’s nomination) more is his quotes in there saying that he had strong disagreement with the Warren Court particularly on reapportionment – one man, one vote,” Biden told “Fox News Sunday.”

“The fact that he questioned abortion and the idea of quotas is one thing. The fact that he questioned the idea of the legitimacy of the reapportionment decisions of the Warren Court is even something well beyond that,” Biden said.

It is interesting to note how Biden backs away from the issue of abortion, which we all know is the dem’s’ true concern, and focues on his views on reapportionment. Confirm Them ask the question of whether the Dems are race baiting.
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One Response to “Biden: Chance of Alito Filibuster Higher”

actus on November 20th, 2005 6:32 pm

“It is interesting to note how Biden backs away from the issue of abortion, which we all know is the dem’s’ true concern, and focues on his views on reapportionment”

The thing is abortion can plausibly be argued in the legislature. But not reapportionment — its entire point is about legislatures.