I sent this letter to Senator Salazar of Colorado. If the possible confirmation of Alito alarms you as it does me, please write your own Senator if you feel he or she is persuadable.

I know you are getting a lot of pressure to vote in favor of Alito’s confirmation. I wanted to let you know that this constituent, at least, is deeply opposed to Alito’s confirmation, and I urge you to vote against him.

As a woman, I fear the negative impact he will have on women’s personal privacy and women’s rights, not only in the areas of contraception and abortion, but in terms of redressing past inequities in jobs and pay. This concern applies to minorities as well. Both in his personal life and in his role as a judge, Alito has consistently sided with white men and other people of wealth and power, and I think white men and rich people already have enough advocates in our government and on the court.

I am deeply concerned as well that he supports this concept of an Imperial Presidency (called the unitary Presidency, as shown in Alito’s advocacy for Presidential signing statements). Already the Bush administration is working hard to subvert the system of checks and balances that make our Constitution unique and which are so important to our liberty. Our government of laws, not men, will only be further undermined if Alito is confirmed. I am certain of it.

This man admires deeply such conservative types as Ronald Reagan and Robert Bork. On this holiday commemorating the life and death of Martin Luther King, Jr., let me remind you that Reagan kicked off his Presidential campaign by going to Philadelphia Mississippi, site of the murders of civil rights workers, and stating his support for “states’ rights”, Republican code for racial separation and white supremacy. It’s no coincidence that Alito belonged to a college group that opposed allowing women and minorities into Princeton, and his protestations that he knew nothing of what that group was about ring hollow.

Please consider how far to the conservative right our government has already slid, and how much further still Alito will help move it if he spends 30 or 40 years as a Supreme Court judge. And then please vote to oppose his nomination.

Thanks for listening