Alito & abortion:

• Alito downplays 1985 abortion statement | Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito distanced himself Tuesday from his 1985 comments that there was no constitutional right to abortion, telling a senator in private that he had been "an advocate seeking a job" (Associated Press)
• Also: Alito downplays anti-abortion memo | "'I don't give heed to my personal view. What I do is interpret the law'," Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California quoted Alito, a federal appeals judge the past 15 years, as telling her (Reuters)
• Liberals rap Alito's anti-Roe stance | Liberals said yesterday that Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s 1985 claim that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" proves that he would try to outlaw the practice (The Washington Times)
• '85 document opens window to Alito views | Judge Samuel Alito Jr. wrote that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion," documents showed (The New York Times)
• No right to abortion, Alito argued in 1985 | Reagan-era papers show staunch conservatism (The Washington Post)
• Alito papers dispute right to abortion | Samuel A. Alito Jr., the nominee for the Supreme Court, wrote in a 1985 application for a senior position in the Reagan administration that ''the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" (The Boston Globe)
• Alito's beliefs, then and now | This time Karl Rove doesn't have to call Dr. Dobson to whisper to him that the Supreme Court nominee goes to an evangelical church (CBS News)
• Three-quarter truths | The sloppy mischaracterizations of Alito's abortion decisions (Dahlia Lithwick, Slate)

Religion & politics:

• Mulling the limits of freedom of speech in churches | The IRS is investigating whether a church in Pasadena, Calif., is abusing its non-profit status by promoting its outspoken antiwar stance. The development has other churches debating how their leaders should walk the line between free speech and preaching (Day to Day, NPR)