LCCR Opposes Alito
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 11/17/2005
Calling him a "threat" to civil rights if confirmed, the nation's premier civil and human rights coalition announced its opposition today to Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.
Alito's stated views and narrow interpretation of the law left the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights no choice but to oppose his nomination, Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) said.
Henderson said that while Alito's opinions were carefully worded and his rhetoric measured, there was no question that his views were out of the mainstream.
"Alito is an ideologue with an agenda of using the judiciary to reverse important constitutional protections," Henderson said.
Civil rights groups say that the case against Alito's nomination is mounting. This week, the National Archives released a 1985 job application where Alito identified his work to restrict affirmative action and limit remedies in racial discrimination cases as areas of which he was "particularly proud."
Alito has taken a regressive approach to voting rights, civil rights, rights of workers, and women's rights, opponents say.
Today a coalition of national and state groups, IndependentCourt.org, launched the first phase of a television advertising and grassroots campaign targeting the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito. The 30-second ad will run on cable news programs nationally and in Maine and Rhode Island.
The ad warns that the right wing stands poised to take over the third branch of government. "The right wing has already taken over the West Wing...don't let them take over your Supreme Court," the ad says.
Alito was nominated last month to succeed retiring justice Sandra Day O'Connor. His nomination came just days after President Bush accepted the withdrawn nomination of Harriet Miers, whose nomination was challenged by the far right.
Civil rights groups say that Miers' withdrawal -- followed by the nomination of Alito -- raises serious questions about the president's commitment to the fundamental principle of an independent Court.
In any event, the agenda of the far right is clear, Henderson said: "to capture the Supreme Court and replace a moderate Sandra Day O'Connor with the litmus-tested Alito."
