President Bush is preparing to nominate federal appeals judge Samuel Alito Jr. today to the Supreme Court. Alito’s nomination comes just four days after Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination. The 55-year-old Alito is widely seen as a judicial conservative who has been nicknamed “Scalito” for his philosophical similarities to Justice Antonin Scalia. The Christian Right has been lobbying Bush to pick a candidate who will oppose abortion rights and overturn Roe v. Wade. In Alito, Bush has picked a judge who has been involved in the one of the most significant abortion case in recent years. As a federal appellate judge, Alito backed a Pennsylvania law that required women to inform their husbands before they sought an abortion. His support came in the form of a dissenting vote in the landmark case Planned Parenthood v. Casey which eventually went to the Supreme Court in 1992. The high court voted 6-3 to strike down the spousal notification requirement. Last night Senate minority leader Harry Reid said Alito is not one of the names of acceptable nominees that he gave to the president. Reid said of Alito’s nomination “I think it would create a lot of problems.”