Judge Alito appears to be a poor choice for a Supreme Court post. His past judgments and statements indicate that he has little concern for the adverse influence upon citizens by decisions made by the powerful, governmental or commercial. It is also clear that he is no friend of a woman’s right to make a choice of whether or not to bear a child. He has argued on several occasions that Roe v. Wade could be nibbled to death, without directly negating that precedent-setting decision.

Furthermore, earlier he was not above fudging information in a job application.

He may now argue that his ideology would not affect his judgment and that he would uphold precedent. Those statements should be viewed with skepticism. He has already demonstrated a penchant for finessing the truth.

A person’s judgment is not independent of his history, background and deeply held views. A person is not a computer that can easily be reprogrammed to wipe out the past. To state as much reveals a lack of candor, or ignorance of how attitudes are formed and their influence upon one’s thinking.

These should be concerns.

His current public thoughts should be viewed with great skepticism, and barring a convincing acknowledgment of errors in his past thinking, which would lead him to rethink past judgments, he should be rejected as being at variance with the interests of a majority of Americans.

John Pehek, Leeds

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