Alito's reapportion comment gets notice

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said he disagreed with court decisions on reapportionment in a newly released 1985 document.

Reference to the reapportion issue, which required voters be given equal representation, appeared in the same job application in which Alito said there is not a constitutional right to abortion.

The reapportionment cases, heard by the court when Earl Warren was the chief justice, are among the court's most widely accepted decisions on civil rights and equal representation.

Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, told the Boston Globe he found that Alito's views ''on reapportionment cases are deeply troubling."

But, Gordon Todd, a Justice Department lawyer working on the nomination, cautioned against reading too much into a line in Alito's application for deputy assistant attorney general.

"He doesn't say in here, 'I disagree with one person, one vote,'" Todd said, adding that only the word "reapportionment" is used.