Supreme Court, Abortion and Anna Nicole

ABC’s Ariane DeVogue blogs about the Court’s upcoming term and the person Justice Alito looked for in the previous one:

We may soon get some more clues as to the abortion views of the Supreme Court’s two newest members. The 2006-7 Supreme Court term is slated to start in a month and although the court won’t be addressing Roe v. Wade’s core holding of a woman’s right to an abortion, the justices will hear two cases regarding restrictions to that right. The cases — which will be heard on November 8th — will target the constitutionality of the federal ban on partial-birth abortion. Although President Bush signed the Act in 2003, courts have barred it from going into effect. (At left, Alito and Roberts in February.)
You’ll recall that during their confirmation hearings Roberts and Alito were asked repeatedly about their views on abortion and each — as expected — artfully dodged the question. Roberts, queried about documents written early in his career that suggested he was adverse to Roe, agreed that Roe had become settled law over the years, but then he went on to detail how settled law could be overturned. For his part, Alito wouldn’t go as far as Roberts. He brushed off question s about a 1985 job application in which he wrote "that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" by saying that the statement was a correct in 1985 when he was a lowly line attorney in the Department of Justice trying to advance his career in the Reagan administration. As a federal judge, Alito did rule against a New Jersey ban on partial birth abortion, but he was bound to do so by Supreme Court precedent. Of course now that he’s actually on the high court, he’s no longer restricted. The very fact that the court agreed to hear this case is interesting because it was only in 2000 that the court overturned a very similar state ban. Some believe that the court decided to wade into the issue again so quickly because the majority has shifted. Justice O’Connor was the swing vote in 2000, and in 2007 all eyes will be on her replacement, Justice Alito. And almost on cue, the Justice has given his first extensive interview to Newark’s Star-Ledger newspaper. Although he didn’t address issues before the court, he did manage to comment on last term’s case regarding the estate of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith. Alito admitted to looking for her in the audience: "I’m not sure to this day that I actually saw her. She looked different. I had seen pictures of her before she went to that diet.” (At right, Anna Nicole at the Court in February.)