The Associated Press is reporting that Samuel Alito will be nominated at 8 am this morning. This is excellent news. The Democrats are going to be so glum. No Rove being marched out of the White House in handcuffs and now, a respected conservative nominated for the Supreme Court instead of the seemingly more pliable Harriet Miers.

They will try to make something of his dissent in Casey,

In the early 1990s, Alito was the lone dissenter in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a case in which the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses.

"The Pennsylvania legislature could have rationally believed that some married women are initially inclined to obtain an abortion without their husbands' knowledge because of perceived problems — such as economic constraints, future plans or the husbands' previously expressed opposition — that may be obviated by discussion prior to the abortion," Alito wrote.

The Supreme Court decided 5:4 against Alito's position though Rehnquist cited Alito's reasoning in his dissent. I'm sure that a lot will be made of this and the interest groups will unleash their budgets, but I suspect that the great majority of the American people will think it reasonable that a husband be informed if his wife is going to abort his child. The law didn't say that he had give permission, just that he should be informed. The husband can't stop his wife from having the abortion, but does the woman's right to privacy cancel out the husband's link to the baby? He would certainly have to pay child support if she had the baby and they had been divorced. But, supposedly there is a Constitional right to deceive your husband. This is a debate worth having.