Alito earlier opposed abortion
- U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito wrote as a lawyer in the Reagan administration 20 years ago that he personally backed its efforts to ban abortion and racial quotas, a 1985 memo released on Monday showed. ADVERTISEMENT Alito wrote the memo as part of his successful bid that year to be elevated to a deputy assistant attorney general. "It has been an honor and source of personal satisfaction for me to serve in the office of the Solicitor General during President Reagan's administration and to help advance legal positions which I personally believe in very strongly," wrote Alito, then an assistant U.S. solicitor general. "I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government has argued in the Supreme Court that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion," Alito added. The memo, part of a job application, was among more than 100 pages of documents releas...