Bush has nominated Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court hole left by O’Connor. Which is a pretty brave and ballsy move – it really is a giant “fuck you” to women and minorities, and it’s good to see the president standing up for his core Christian values.
Alito has conservative credentials, we are told, and his nomination will lack the right-wing opposition that Harriet Miers dredged up. CNN has a summary of his biggest hits, and I’ll be honest – there’s quite a lot in there that seems pretty agreeably moderate. But there’s a great big nasty mark on his record, and that’s 1991’s Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, wherein he joined a majority upholding, among other things, a 24-hour waiting period for abortions and mandatory parental consent. The really creepy part is his dissent from the majority opinion striking down spousal-notification laws. His justification was that this restriction place an “undue burdon” on a woman’s ability to access an abortion. Which is probably true. I have a very hard time imagining any husband who would, for example, beat a woman who wanted to abort his child. Because women seeking abortions never come from violent households.
The good-ish news is that Harry Reid et al have already come out opposed to Alito’s nomination. Which should delay his confirmation by, like, a couple of hours at least.