National Catholic Reporter Names Justice Alito 'Newsmaker of the Year' for Polarizing Catholics and the Court

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The National Catholic Reporter Publishing

Dec 16, 2022, 07:00 ET

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Dec. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Catholic Reporter (NCR), the nation's premier independent Catholic news organization, named US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as its Newsmaker of the Year in an editorial published Dec. 16, 2022. As Executive Editor Heidi Schlump explains, "Every year, the editors of NCR name someone we believe has been the most consequential newsmaker of the year. It's not always for doing something positive. That's the case this year."

NCR cites Alito's majority opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson overturning 50 years of settled abortion law as the basis for its choice. As NCR notes, "The author of the decision, the four other justices who joined the majority and the chief justice . . . were all raised Catholic."

NCR spotlights Alito's role "as the vanguard of an ideological shift in the judicial branch" in which "this court and its Catholic supermajority are changing norms and jurisprudence on everything from gun control to the influence of money in political life, from the rights of workers to the voting rights necessary to maintain a democracy."

Alito is not the first newsmaker NCR has selected for their negative impact. Last year, NCR selected LA Archbishop Jose Gomez as it's Newsmaker of the Year, for his efforts to deny communion to liberal Catholic politicians and fanning the flames of culture war.

Alito was nominated by George W. Bush in October 2005 and confirmed by a 58-42 vote in the Senate in January 2006, replacing the more moderate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He has joined conservative majorities in cases dealing with abortion, gun ownership, labor unions, voting rights and the death penalty. Alito wrote the decision in the 2014 Hobby Lobby case that said private corporations could be exempt from generally applicable laws, such as the Affordable Care Act's requirement that health insurance provide birth control, on the grounds of religious liberty.

Alito was the driving force behind and wrote the majority opinion in 2018 in Janus v. AFSCME, which dealt a blow to public-sector labor unions and the labor movement in general. In 2010, he wrote the court's decision striking down state bans on handguns in the home, noting that the right to keep and bear arms is "deeply rooted in the traditions of the country." (He would use the same language in Dobbs to argue that privacy rights are not "deeply rooted.")

The National Catholic Reporter is an independent Catholic news source. Founded in 1964, NCR provides news and commentary on issues related to the Catholic Church and the world. The publication can be read online at NCRonline.org, or by following @ncronline on Facebook and Twitter.

For further information, please contact NCR Executive Editor Heidi Schlumpf or News Editor Joshua J. McElwee.

SOURCE The National Catholic Reporter Publishing