Make no mistake about it, John G. Roberts, Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court, is a clear and present danger to your rights. He’s a right-wing corporate lawyer with a reactionary agenda. Everyone concerned about what is fair and just should object to his confirmation by the Senate.

The stakes are high. In the years ahead, there is no doubt that the Supreme Court will make decisions on a lot of big issues that effect our lives, including reproductive rights for women, the rights of gays and lesbians, the criminal justice system, voting rights and our democratic rights in general.

Anyone who doubts the importance of the Supreme Court and its decisions should think back to presidential race of 2000 when the Court handed the White House to a Texas governor who lost the election.

Some Democratic Party politicians and a lot of the media pundits are saying it’s too early to take a stand against Roberts because not enough is known about his record. In fact there is more than enough evidence to indict this character.

Roberts started his career as a corporate lawyer. He attacked the rights of workers injured on the job. He then went on to the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Sr. He wrote legal briefs attacking reproductive rights and the voting rights of African Americans and other oppressed nationalities. What’s he done lately? As a federal judge he voted against any real legal process for those held at the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay. This is no small matter. Prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are tortured. Some prisoners were just kids. And along comes Roberts, puppet of the Bush administration, who says that neither the Geneva Convention nor the Bill of Rights applies to the detainees.

Everyone knows that right-wing politicians are determined to overturn Roe vs. Wade – the Supreme Court decision that acknowledged abortion rights – and this vital issue will take center stage in the Roberts confirmation process. John Roberts and his supporters are trying to muddy the waters and make it seem like he is a fair-minded man with an unclear position. That’s a lie. He wrote a legal brief saying Roe vs. Wade should be overturned. No serious person can say that his decisions on the bench would do anything other than erode reproductive rights.

The Republican Party and the right wing generally understand what John Roberts is about. That’s why they are preparing with millions of dollars and a media campaign, along with whatever political capital they can muster, to get his nomination through the Senate.

And consider this: No one on the Supreme Court is getting any younger. Bush might well get another chance to nominate yet another justice. The battle over Roberts will shape and inform the fight over future nominees.

In the final analysis, anyone who is appointed to the Supreme Court is going to serve the rich and powerful. It’s anything but the people’s court. That said, standing up and saying no to Roberts is a rejection of injustice and an affirmation of the rights that all oppressed and working people are entitled to. Whether it is abortion rights or anything else that matters, society’s really big issues are going to be settled in the streets, by our collective action and determination to win. We can’t let Roberts, Bush or their backers turn us around or turn the back the clock.

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Selecting a Supreme Court Justice is a serious matter. Everyone knows this. Adding a determined enemy of equality, justice and our democratic rights to the court will have a real impact on our lives. So the matter needs to be dealt with accordingly. Alito’s confirmation must be opposed.

Right now, Bush, the leaders of the Republican Party and reactionaries of all kinds are trying to portray the nominee as a thoughtful and reasonable person. That’s their perspective. Keep in mind that they also think invading Iraq was a good idea. And that opposing science – from evolution to stem cell research – is reasonable. They also think it is OK to torture people. Alito has the stamp of approval from the powerful, the rich and bigots who are looking to turn back the clock.

Here are the facts. Alito is against a women’s right to chose whether or not to have an abortion. His record as a judge demonstrates he will try to erode and curtail reproductive rights. Among serious people there is no serious debate about this. The only question is how far will he go. The balance of forces on the Supreme Court has changed. Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, has never been closer to reversal than it is today. Alito is a clear and present danger to choice. Period.

Here is what Samuel Alito had to say about himself in a 1985 job application: “I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government argued that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the constitution does not protect the right to an abortion.” Case closed. His views are clear

Alito is a company man. He is pro big business. That’s his record. He is hostile to oppressed nationalities – African-Americans, Chicano/Latinos, Asian, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders – and that’s how he has ruled in discrimination cases. At a time when government routinely tramples on our rights, he is the type that wants to expand police powers. To be frank, if one considers fair play, he is not qualified to judge a traffic court.

Unfortunately, many Senate Democrats are sending mixed messages on Alito. They say they oppose him. Then they say are ‘open to an up or down vote’ on Alito in the Senate. In practice that means Alito will be a Supreme Court Justice. There is only one way that congress will block the Alito nomination at the point. A filibuster. Anyone in congress who does not do everything it takes to block Alito is an objective supporter of Bush’s nominee. And we – the American people – need to put the maximum heat on Congress to make sure they do the right thing.

Bush is facing a host of grave political problems, including the defeat in Iraq and growing opposition to that war here at home, the indictment of high administration officials, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and signs of looming economic downturn. The Alito nomination needs to be seen in that context. Most Americans believe that Bush is a dishonest man who is taking the country in the wrong direction and a sizable section of the U.S. ruling class has their doubts about the course the administration is taking. Bush is weak and that is why his previous nominee, Harriet Miers, met with defeat.

By nominating Alito, Bush wants to reconnect with and mobilize the most reactionary section of his political base. He hopes that this will add to his political muscle so that he can achieve the rest of his aims. And, if he succeeds in getting Alito on the Supreme Court, it will advance a repressive right wing agenda that will play a role in shaping the political context for years to come.

The struggle to defeat the Alito nomination will be one of the truly important battles of this decade. It’s by no means a done deal that he will end up on the high court. We can have a real impact by raising our voices and insisting D.C. politicians take a hard line against him. Our rights and our future are at stake.

No to Alito!

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