Specter quoted a remarkably cynical statement Justices O'Connor, Kennedy and Souter made in Casey. "After nearly 20 years of litigation in Roe's wake," they wrote, "we are satisfied that the immediate question is not the soundness of Roe's resolution, but the precedential force that must be accorded its holding."

 Since Roe, Specter told Alito, the Supreme Court has issued 38 decisions relying on it. He even had his aides bring into the hearing room multiple copies of a large chart (also used in the Roberts hearings) inscribed with the titles of all 38 cases. The charts were strategically positioned around the room so few camera angles aimed at Alito or at the panel of senators could evade them.

 Nonetheless, Alito, like Roberts before him, evaded giving Specter an unambiguous answer about Roe and Casey.

 When Specter asked if the "legitimacy" of the court might be injured "if Roe were overturned," Alito countered: "I think that the legitimacy of the court would be undermined in any case if the court made a decision based on its perception of public opinion. It should make its decisions based on the Constitution and the law."

 When Specter reminded Alito that Casey "separates out the original soundness of Roe, which had been criticized, and then lays emphasis on the precedential value," Alito conceded, "There needs to be a special justification for overruling a prior precedent."

 But when Specter asked Alito whether he agreed that "Casey is a super-precedent or a super-stare decisis," Alito stopped him with a quip. "I personally would not get into categorizing precedents as super-precedents or super-duper-precedents," said Alito. "Any sort of categorization like that sort of reminds me of the size of the laundry detergent in the supermarket."

 Alito concluded by clearly leaving the door open to overturning Roe, noting that stare decisis was not "an inexorable command."

 Observers on the right hope -- and on the left fear -- that once confirmed, Alito will act on the realization that what the Supreme Court lied about in Roe was far more valuable than gold. It was the meaning of our Constitution, and the sanctity of life.