Pro-Life Sen. Sam Brownback Likes Samuel Alito After Private Meeting 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 9, 2005
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Senator Sam Brownback was one of the leading pro-life senators to question Harriet Miers’ pro-life credentials on abortion. But after meeting new Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, Brownback said he is the kind of nominee he wanted.
"This is the type of nominee I’ve been asking for, as far as an individual of unquestionable qualifications and a long judicial track record," Brownback said. Alito, he said, has "excellent qualifications to go onto the bench."
The possible Republican presidential candidate said he believed Alito was open to reviewing long-standing Supreme Court precedents like Roe v. Wade, despite media reports claiming he is not.
"It also would look like to me he is open to reviewing cases, as he should be as a judge, but he did not say which cases he would review or not," Brownback said.
Brownback said the two did not specifically discuss Roe v. Wade because Alito can’t take a public stance on the case without having to recuse himself once on the high court.
"I think we are where we should be in this process of us being able to give advice and consent on somebody that we pretty well know and is a pretty tight constructionist on the Constitution," Brownback, one of the members of the Senate Judiciary, told reporters.
However, his attitude about Alito stands in stark contrast to his disappointment with the Miers nomination. He said Miers came with no judicial track record, which made him uncomfortable.
With Alito, however, abortion has been front and center because of a ruling in 1991 upholding pro-life laws in Pennsylvania, including one requiring women to tell their husbands about a planned abortion of their child. Polls show 70 percent of Americans back that idea.
