Senators Kohl & Feingold Vote to Protect Key Freedoms
NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin praises “no” vote on
anti-choice Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito
Madison, WI – NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin applauds Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold for opposing the confirmation of Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court. Alito was nominated by President Bush to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; his confirmation could spell the end of important freedoms for Americans, such as the right to medical privacy and a woman’s right to choose.
“We’re gratified that our Senators stood up for the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans,” said Kelda Helen Roys, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin. “They understand that Alito’s record reveals a disdain for core constitutional rights, and he could be the vote that eviscerates the protections of Roe v. Wade.”
In his statement, Senator Kohl noted that Alito failed to acknowledge that Roe v. Wade was “settled law,” even though he was wiling to do so with other cases and issues that could come before the Court.
Senator Feingold expressed concern that Alito lacked a sensitivity to the “privacy and personal dignity” protected by the Constitution, and failed to recognize the importance of respecting precedent specifically related to reproductive rights.
Throughout his career, Alito has established himself as anti-choice, writing in a memo that “the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion,” narrowly construing constitutional protections for women and families, and supporting dangerous restrictions on the right to choose. Alito also wrote that birth control was tantamount to abortion, contrary to medical science. During the hearings, he failed provide Americans with any comfort that he respected the right to privacy and would uphold reproductive rights.
NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin has worked for months in opposition to Alito, activating its statewide membership to contact the Senators and collecting petition signatures. The group is the political arm of the state’s pro-choice movement.
The letter NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin sent to Senators Kohl and Feingold is attached.
Contact: Kelda Helen Roys, (608) 213-4502
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January 16, 2006
The Honorable Herb Kohl
330 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Russell D. Feingold
506 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senators Kohl & Feingold:
Our nation is at a crossroads and so is the Supreme Court. More than ever, Americans are wondering if our fundamental rights and liberties, which have defined our national identity, will survive the current assaults by the Bush Administration and Republicans in Congress.
As a Senate Judiciary Committee member, you have a key role to play in safeguarding the legal traditions and values that Americans cherish by giving or withholding your advice and consent on federal judicial appointments. Other than the decision to go to war, no decision a senator makes is more important, or will have greater impact, than that of confirming a new justice to the United States Supreme Court.
As you know, Judge Samuel Alito, Jr., would replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on our nation’s highest Court, and his confirmation would reshape our country’s legal landscape for generations to come. I carefully watched Judge Alito during this week’s hearings, hoping that he would offer some assurances to you and your constituents that he was sensitive to our concerns. Unfortunately, he refused to substantively address many important legal questions and would not distance himself from his earlier stated view that “the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.” (Department of Justice Application of Samuel A. Alito, Jr. for the Position of Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Nov. 15, 1985.)
Alito’s confirmation would result in devastating changes in civil rights and key constitutional areas that go to the very heart of American democracy. His confirmation could alter not only the “basic balance between Congress and presidential power in a way that could affect our very system of government,” as you aptly stated, but could change the basic balance between individual rights and government power in a way that affects our very notion of citizenship.
Wisconsinites, and Americans, overwhelmingly believe Alito should not be confirmed if he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Hand-picked by the most right-wing elements in our society, it is difficult to imagine a nominee more opposed to the right to choose. His personal and legal opposition to abortion rights is well-documented and consistent throughout his career. Nowhere has he (or his surrogates) suggested that his personal or legal views regarding Roe have changed.
This seat on the Court is the critical one for reproductive rights – the justice who fills it will determine whether American women retain autonomy over their own reproductive decisions, or whether their choices will be limited, restricted, delayed, or criminalized.
Many court-watchers have joined NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin in recognizing the threat Alito poses to reproductive rights in particular. On January 13, 2006, the New York Times published an editorial, saying, “… it is hard to see how Senators Specter, Chafee, Snowe and Collins - or any other pro-choice senators - can call themselves strong advocates of abortion rights if they support him.”
In Wisconsin, any overturning or modifications to Roe would be particularly devastating. Our state has a pre-Roe felony abortion ban that could be used to imprison and fine women who seek abortions and those who assist them. Our state assembly and senate are controlled by anti-choice, anti-birth control majorities that would block any attempt to create legislative protection for abortion rights.
On behalf of our over 30,000 members statewide, I thank you for your strong support for reproductive rights and privacy. We appreciated your excellent questioning of Alito during the hearings and your vigilance in defending the right to choose.
Through your inquiries and those of the other Democratic Judiciary Committee members, we have seen plainly that Alito does not have the requisite respect for Americans’ fundamental rights and privacy that a Supreme Court Justice ought to.
Because the future of our freedoms are at stake, I ask you to vote against confirming Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.
Sincerely,
Kelda Helen Roys, JD
Executive Director
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