When that Alito guy was confirmed to the Supreme Court, we were pretty concerned. We didn't much like the guy, and in the arena of toadying to the religious right, he was a much bigger concern to us than Roberts, but it was fairly clear that his confirmation was a given. However, we decided to reserve judgement on how disastrous the scenario really was until we were able to assess Alito's actions.

After all, we reasoned, only time will tell. It is never clear how a Supreme Court justice will perform until after they've sat on the bench for a while, and some justices have surprised a lot of people. The larger problem, which may soon slap rational civil libertarians (or, if things go another way, the more numerous population of hardline religious right asshats) squarely in the face, is that by the time we know who should be happy and who should be sad, it will be far too late to do anything about it — we're already stuck with Alito for a long time to come.

Well, we stand by our assessment that only time will tell, but we may be getting some early indicators already. A post on UTI pointed us to a letter sent from Alito to James Dobson, the head of the über-insane Focus on the Family:

The Associated Press reported today Dobson received a six-paragraph personal note from Alito. In the letter, Alito thanked Dobson for backing his nomination to the Supreme Court.

Read the note, "This is just a short note to express my heartfelt thanks to you and the entire staff of Focus on the Family for your help and support during the past few challenging months. I would also greatly appreciate it if you would convey my appreciation to the good people from all parts of the country who wrote to tell me that they were praying for me and for my family during this period."

Alito went on to write, "As long as I serve on the Supreme Court I will keep in mind the trust that has been placed in me" and expressed his desire for a personal meeting with Dobson.

Well, gee — that's...not good. Yeah, we're not thrilled about the "thanks for praying for me" part; but that's far less troublesome than the "As long as I serve on the Supreme Court I will keep in mind the trust that has been placed in me" part. We thought that Supreme Court Justices were meant to be beyond partisan politics or the advancement of anyone's particular agenda, beholden to no political faction's special interests. You know, so their opinions would be based purely on Constitutional law and reasoned deliberation. As evidenced by Alito's puckered lips planted firmly on Dobson's sweaty ass: apparently not. We'll note that for future reference.

And what makes this even more troublesome is that the agenda of the religious zealots is proceeding much more quickly than we ever imagined. We thought we'd see a gradual attempt to erode, for example, abortion rights — some parental consent laws made more restrictive, further use of waiting periods, perhaps more mention of paternal consent. Instead, South Dakota is already on track to challenge abortion head on, and Alito's ass hasn't even been on the bench long enough to warm it up.

State lawmakers voted Friday to ban nearly all abortions in South Dakota and sent the measure to the governor, who said he is inclined to sign it.

Under the legislation, doctors in South Dakota would face up to five years in prison for performing an abortion unless it was necessary to save the woman's life.

The bill directly targets Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. State lawmakers believe the nation's highest court is now more likely to reverse itself on the abortion issue because of the recent appointments of Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

This legislation would make abortions illegal under all circumstances, unless it is necessary to save the mother's life. That's right, no exceptions for non-life-threatening risks to the mother's health, or for rape. Quite frankly, anyone who argues that abortions should be denied to rape victims and to women whose health is at risk is just plain fucked in the head. There's no rational basis for such a point of view, and we'll openly call anyone who holds such a view exactly what they are — malicious, moronic assholes. But hey, maybe we just don't understand that wacky Christian vibe. No doubt rapists have a special place in God's omnibeneficent heart. After all, rape is part of God's special plan, right?

And South Dakota isn't alone. Other states are following this example in a clear attempt to directly challenge Roe v. Wade. Of course, such sweeping bans are risky — the anti-abortion crowd will either win big, or lose big. The fact that they're confident enough to make such a bet is quite worrisome by itself.

Again, we'll reserve judgement on Alito until we've had a chance to assess his actions, and the same goes for the somewhat-less-worrisome Roberts; but we'd be lying if we said we weren't concerned. We aren't shouting about the impending death of civil liberties, but we absolutely do have low hopes for the next ten-plus years of Supreme Court decisions, and we absolutely believe that when civil liberties and religion clash before this new judicial line-up, civil liberties will be more likely to take a beating.

Frankly, it's sickening that a shit-for-brains lackey of the religious right like Bush got the opportunity to appoint two members to the nation's highest court — sickening that his impact will be felt long beyond the end of his presidency. All we want is to be rid of this guy, and instead we'll be dealing with his Supreme Court nominees for a long time to come. Because — let's face it — if Alito turns out not to be a bible-thumping, cross-wielding Jesus freak, it won't be for lack of effort on Bush's part.

The only hope we have is that, like so many of the tasks that Bush has undertaken as president, he's also fucked this one up, accidentally appointing a rational justice by mistake, rather than a toady for the religious right. But, like a supermodel on a diet of celery and speed, with every passing day, that possibility becomes slimmer and slimmer.

[Update 2006-03-04: In case you're interested, the full text of the letter is as follows:

Dear Dr. Dobson:

This is just a short note to express my heartfelt thanks to you and the entire staff of Focus on the Family for your help and support during the past few challenging months.

I would also greatly appreciate it if you would convey my appreciation to the good people from all parts of the country who wrote to tell me that they were praying for me and for my family during this period.

As I said when I spoke at my formal investiture at the White House last week, the prayers of so many people from around the country were a palpable and powerful force.

As long as I serve on the Supreme Court I will keep in mind the trust that has been placed in me.

I hope that we'll have the opportunity to meet personally at some point in the future.

In the meantime my entire family and I hope that you and the Focus on the Family staff know how we appreciate all that you have done.

Sincerely yours,

Samuel Alito

The above version was read on the air by Dobson, and confirmed as the text of the letter by a Focus on the Family spokesperson.]

There better be a MASSIVE public outcry about this from the normal folks there to keep those justices in check. Alito is just as much a freak as Scalia and Thomas, and piling Roberts on top will increase the Suck Factor for rational people 10 fold.

He actually wrote a letter thanking James Dobson... Unbelieveable. He must have huge balls.

Any male politician who votes for a ban on abortion without some sort of rape/incest clause should be cryogenically frozen until such a time as we can successuflly thaw them out and change their gender so they can be raped until they're pregnant. Then we can see how they liked it.