Alito becomes lightning rod in abortion war

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito is coming under new scrutiny and criticism after his draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade leaked Monday evening, creating a firestorm in Washington.

Alito, who was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2006, has taken a back-seat to his more prominent conservative colleagues, Justice Clarence Thomas and the late-Justice Antonin Scalia, for much of his career.

But now he’s bursting into the nation’s consciousness in a big way, hailed as a hero by anti-abortion rights conservatives and denounced as a villain by Democrats who say he’s driven by a personal political agenda.