Nominee separates judicial, personal

Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. said yesterday he would keep his personal views about abortion separate from his legal opinions, according to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, who warned both sides to cool their rhetoric over the nomination.

“I do not want to see it get out of hand,” Mr. Specter told reporters yesterday.

Specifically, the Pennsylvania Republican doesn’t want the nomination to follow the same path as President Bush’s previous pick for the seat, White House counsel Harriet Miers. Her nomination was withdrawn after sustained and withering attacks by conservatives.

“I’m concerned that we not have a replay of what happened to White House counsel Harriet Miers, who was really sort of run out of town on a rail,” Mr. Specter said. “The process was shanghaied with the prejudicing of the position by the radio and TV talk shows and the columns.”

Judge Alito’s personal and legal views about abortion have become the focal point of his nomination.

According to documents he wrote 20 years ago, Judge Alito saw no basis for abortion rights in the Constitution and drafted a long-term strategy for undermining the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.

Mr. Specter met privately with Judge Alito yesterday morning in his office and said afterward that the nominee assured him that his past arguments about abortion were those of an advocate working on behalf of a pro-life client.

“Judge Alito commented about those matters to me and raised a sharp distinction, as he put it, between his role as an advocate and his role as a judge,” Mr. Specter said. “And with respect to his personal views on a woman’s right to choose, he says that that is not a matter to be considered in deliberation on a constitutional issue of a woman’s right to choose. The judicial role is entirely different.”

Liberals aren’t buying it.

People for the American Way President Ralph G. Neas sent a note to journalists yesterday attacking Judge Alito’s credibility.

“Alito and his handlers in the Bush administration have tried to distance the nominee from his earlier writings, but Alito’s emerging record demonstrates long-term hostility towards constitutional protection for women’s reproductive rights, and makes clear he favors overturning Roe v. Wade by any means possible,” Mr. Neas wrote. “The idea that Alito maintains an open mind on reproductive rights is simply not credible.”

Democrats, led by Sens. Charles E. Schumer of New York and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, said the memos raise serious concerns and suggested they might support filibustering the nomination.

But some conservatives argued that Democrats are attacking the nominee to placate their liberal base and raise money.

“Two things are motivating Senator Schumer: unregulated abortion on demand and raising money for the 2006 election cycle,” said Joseph Cella, president of the conservative Catholic group Fidelis.

Mr. Specter, one of few Senate Republicans who support abortion rights, said that while he was concerned about the tenor of the debate, he wasn’t worried that Judge Alito was going the way of Miss Miers.

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