Politics 2022: how Justice Samuel Alito set out to eliminate women's right to abortion

Born in 1950 in Trenton, New Jersey, Justice Samuel Alito grew up in an Italian Catholic family outside of Trenton. After attending Princeton University and Yale Law School, he worked for a Trenton-based law firm.

From 1976 to 1977, he then worked as a clerk for Judge Leonard I. Garth of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Then from 1977 to 1981, he served as assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.

After a move to Washington, D.C., Alito served in the Ronald Reagan administration as assistant to the solicitor general (1981–85) and as deputy assistant attorney general (1985–87).

Alito's stance on abortion was exposed clearly in a memo he wrote during his time at the Justice Department in 1985. The memo outlined how the Reagan administration should approach its stance on limiting abortion, Alito wrote, "We should make clear that we disagree with Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether, and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled."

Samuel Alito was appointed to the Third Circuit in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, where he became known for his conservative points of view in a very liberal district. Alito tended to favor the right of states and of religion when voicing his opinions.

This earned Alito the nickname of "Scalito," as many saw similarities, albeit Alito was quieter and more measured, to Justice Antonin Scalia. Compared to Justice Scalia, Alito tended to focus more on the procedure, his writing style was simple, and he avoided political rhetoric.

In 2005 President George W. Bush nominated Samuel Alito to replace Sandra Day O'Connor in the Supreme Court. The more liberal members of Congress at the time of Alito's confirmation were concerned that the conservative Judge would push the Court in a far more conservative direction.

Skeptics of Alito were worried that his opinions would limit the criminally accused's rights, harm historically disadvantaged groups such as women and minorities, and unduly accommodate executive power.

However, during Senate hearings on his nomination, Alito was praised for his even temperament, intelligence, and character, described by senators as "even-tempered," "fair-minded," and "honest."

While the criticism of Alito may have had him sweating, the Republican Senate had no difficulties amassing the 60 votes needed for cloture. As a result, on January 31, 2006, Alito was confirmed by a vote of 58 to 42.

Once Alito was in the Supreme Court, he became a reliable conservative, tending to vote in agreement with Republican-appointed justices with a much higher frequency than with Democratic-appointed justices, most notable in those cases which were not decided unanimously.

For example, Alito voted in favor of Gonzales v. Carhart in 2007, which upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. Later in 2008, he voted in favor of the District of Columbia v. Heller, which established that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess firearms.

In addition, Alito also wrote dissents against same-sex marriage. In 2014 Alito was the author of the majority opinion, which allowed the U.S. craft store chain Hobby Lobby and other Christian-run businesses to receive a religious exemption to the Affordable Care Act's contraception mandate.

Alito is now 72 years of age and a veteran of the courts. Law professors such as Professor John Culhane of Widener University Delaware College of law say that even before Alito joined the Supreme Court, he was well known for his conservative point of view.

Professor Culhane told the Phildelphia Inquirer, "Even before Alito ascended to the Supreme Court he had developed a reputation, not only in constitutional law, as somebody with a very conservative, very much antiabortion viewpoint, and not once has he since being selected for the Supreme Court expressed anything but antipathy for the decision in (Planned Parenthood v.)Casey."

Alito has been all over the news in 2022 due to an extraordinary breach of protocol - a draft of a majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, written by Alito, was leaked to Politico.

The draft that was leaked was declared to be authentic by Chief Justice Roberts. Alito's draft indicated that a majority of justices had voted to overturn two historic Supreme Court rulings that had established and affirmed the constitutional right to obtain an abortion: Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992).

However, it should be noted that the opinion published by Politico was labeled "1st Draft," — so it appears to be Alito's sole vision. So many still held hope that Roe vs. Wade might not be overturned.

However, on June 24, 2022, the news that the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade shocked Americans. Women in the United States no longer had a federal right to abortion and 50 years of legal protection was lost.

According to the New York Times, as of December 2022, abortions are now banned in at least 13 states. Conservative states such as Georgia have gone so far as to ban abortion at 6 weeks of pregnancy, when many women don't even know they are pregnant.

There are currently only three states that still have the explicit right to abortion in their state constitution: California, Michigan, and Vermont. Other states in the U.S. have implicit rights to abortion subject to state judicial review, such as Kansas and Montana, or simply protect it via state law such as Colorado.