On the topic of abortion, Alito has skillfully addressed critic’s concerns. I still think it’s going to be a party line vote because nobody on the Dem side wants to take a chance with this guy,
Personally, he still concerns me. Having an open mind is not the same as respecting precedent and everybody knows [...]

The paper trail on Samuel Alito continues to build where Roe v. Wade is concerned. Obviously this troubles me, as it does a majority of Americans.
1985 seems to be proving a fairly decisive year for Alito.
As a Justice Department lawyer in the Reagan administration, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. helped devise a legal [...]

First, some background.
It’s the middle of the night in New Hampshire, and a teenager, afraid to tell her parents she is pregnant, appears at an emergency room. A doctor diagnoses a spike in blood pressure that won’t kill the girl but could render her sterile unless she has an immediate abortion. The doctor calls a [...]

No surprise here.
“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 [...]

Decisions like these are never easy. However, should they be outlawed?
From the Wash Post:
“So when do you go for the abortion?” my friend asked, her voice sympathetic.
“Wednesday,” I replied, and then hurriedly got off the phone. I called Mike, my boyfriend, in tears, complaining about how inconsiderate people are, how no one thinks before they [...]

Dan Savage breaks down privacy laws in a great editorial:
In 1961, Griswold, the executive director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut, opened a birth-control clinic in New Haven. She was promptly arrested for dispensing contraceptives to a married couple and was eventually convicted and fined $100. She appealed, and when her case reached the [...]

Well, it’s official. Alito is strongly against abortion and its legality.
Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee, wrote that “the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion” in a 1985 document obtained by The Washington Times.
“I personally believe very strongly” in this legal position, Mr. Alito wrote on his application [...]

First, some history:
The formal story began in 1866, when a physician named John Langdon Down published an essay in England in which he described a set of children with common features who were distinct from other children with mental retardation. Down was superintendent of an asylum for children with mental retardation in Surrey, England when [...]

Who said this?
The Pennsylvania legislature could have rationally believed that some married women are initially inclined to obtain an abortion without their husbands’ knowledge because of perceived problemsâ€â€?such as economic constraints, future plans, or the husbands’ previously expressed oppositionâ€â€?that may be obviated by discussion prior to the abortion. In addition, the legislature could have reasonably [...]

Jeff Goldstein does a good job, I think, dissecting a typically dismissive Democratic statement (Kevin Drum, in this case) about spousal notification in the Pennsylvania abortion law. Drum calls it one of a list of “hot button conservative social issues that have at their core a desire to enforce traditional sex and gender roles,” and [...]

This is what I’m talking about.
Don’t torture the Constitution to make it confess to a “right to privacy” that’s not there. Don’t make abortion legally protected based on Thad Stevens’ Reconstruction amendments. Most Americans want a right to privacy; most accept some form of legalized abortion. Make it explicit: pass an amendment.

Problematically, a right to [...]

Analyzing how the battle for the Alito nomination will play out has thus far focused upon the respectively pronounced sides of the political spectrum, with much discussion as to how the more liberal and conservative members will be engaged throughout the process.
Overlooked to date though is the critical role that Republican moderates [...]

Knee jerk reaction coming up, but I think it’s significant to start talking about this right away.
As I go over Alito’s record, there’s one case in particular that really doesn’t sit well with me this morning. I’m sure most of you could guess what that is, but it’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
From SCOTUSblog:
A dissenting opinion [...]

I finally found this poll from last year and I think Meirs should take heed.
Fifty-nine percent said Bush should choose a supporter of Roe v. Wade, while 31 percent said they want a nominee who will try to overturn the decision, according to the poll. Support for Roe v. Wade was seen among both men [...]

I certainly don’t like the sound of this John Fund commentary
First, a little from James Dobson about his conversation with Rove.
Dr. Dobson says he spoke to Mr. Rove on Oct. 2, the day before President Bush announced the nomination. Mr. Rove assured Dr. Dobson that Ms. Miers was an evangelical Christian and a strict constructionist, [...]

This is an interesting tidbit I picked out of an AP article on Harriet Meirs.
It’s being reported that Focus on the Family founder James Dobson was assured by the White House that Meirs opposed abortions.
This has a couple of Senators concerned.
Specter and the committee’s top Democrat, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, are considering having Focus on [...]

George Will is really gunning for the President over the new nominee in this editorial in the Washington Post.
It is not important that she be confirmed because there is no evidence that she is among the leading lights of American jurisprudence, or that she possesses talents commensurate with the Supreme Court’s tasks. The president’s “argument” [...]

Like Bill Bennett, I probably should just keep my mouth shut.
I confess, I’ve completely lost track of what “racist” means in contemporary American political discourse. I know what I think it means, but evidently I’m one of the people who are disqualified from knowing anything about it because I am a racist.
That is, I get [...]

So to address some major points:

Are blacks, on average, convicted of more crimes than any other race? Yes.
Did Bennett disagree with author Steven Levitt’s theory that higher abortion rates = lower crime rates? Yes.
Did Bennett agree that higher black abortion rates = lower crime rates? Yes.

I blogged about the Bennett’s Black Babies Theory story yesterday. [...]

Media Matters For America captured a conversation Bill Bennett, author of The Book of Virtues, had on his show Bill Bennett’s Morning in America. The program is said to reach an estimated 1.25 million listeners each week.
Are you ready?
Okay, here we go…
BENNETT: you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make [...]