Alito's Beliefs, Then And Now

Dotty Lynch is the Senior Political Editor for CBS News. E-mail your questions and comments to Political Points

"I am and have always been a conservative," Alito wrote in his application to become Deputy Attorney General in the Reagan Justice Department. He described his fealty to all aspects of limited government and, to make sure they understood just how true blue he was, he touched every conceivable conservative base.

He said he got interested in politics because of William F. Buckley, the National Review and Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign; he disagreed with the Warren Court; he was a lifelong Republican who gave money, not only to the National Republican Congressional Committee but also to the National Conservative Political Action Group (NCPAC) and to Jeff Bell in the 1982 Republican primary in New Jersey. (Bell was the anti-abortion candidate who ran against moderate New Jersey Republican icons Senator Clifford Case in 1978 and Rep. Millicent Fenwick. in 1982.)

The folks from the White House passed it off as a 20-year-old job application for a position with Ronald Reagan who had, after all, just been re-elected with 59 percent of the vote.

The problem for the White House was that this very straightforward letter appeared on a day they had hoped to promulgate a message of a thoughtful, more nuanced Judge Alito in an attempt to correct some myths promulgated "by the left" about Alito's rulings on strip searches, machine gun ownership, family and medical leave, and spousal notification on abortion.

In fact, many of their facts were correct. Alito cited precedent when he decided on the pro-choice side of several cases when he was an appeals court judge. He has said that his dissent in Casey v Planned Parenthood was the "hardest decision he's ever had to make" and couched his dissent in logic laid out by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Alito concluded that notifying the spouse would not constitute an undue burden on the woman and many legal scholars concur that it was O'Connor who changed her position and that Alito had interpreted her opinions correctly.

An attempt by Alito's supporters to muddle his position on abortion stood in contrast to his own words from that 1985 job application that "the Constitution does not protect the right to an abortion." A statement with more clarity than the White House might have liked right now.

"Now we know why they loved him so much," said the head of a women's rights group after seeing the letter. The irony is that the liberal groups, according to the New York Times, were planning broaden their attack on Alito from just abortion to a number of issues. His dissent on Casey was a rather "thin reed," one women's rights leader told me. The new documents may change that equation.

Moderate Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who are crucial to Alito's confirmation, were a bit shaken by the document and made it clear that they wanted to know if Alito's beliefs have evolved over the past twenty years and whether he could set his personal beliefs aside.

The job application has several other interesting items for those moderates to mull. Alito cited his active membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a very conservative group that in 1985 was protesting abortions in the campus health clinic and the poor performance of the football team as evidence that the traditions of the school were being eroded.

It looks like the gambit which worked so well for Judge John Roberts – namely, that his 20-year-old memos in the Reagan years were briefs for his "client" and not necessarily his personal opinions - won't work for Judge Alito.

Samuel Alito was very clear and specific about his beliefs and opinions about the law when he applied for the position of Deputy Attorney General. Shouldn't we demand the same clarity on his application for the Supreme Court?