Robert Gordon, a Yale Law School Professor, writes the most interesting summary of the case against the Alito nomination I’ve seen.
I noticed a lot of the commenters didn’t get his basic premise, which is not to indict him based on his agenda, but the concealment of such against the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. His recent response to the Concerned Alumni of Princeton seems to prove this out. (In this article to, some commenters deliberately misinterpret the report as an indictment of his using ROTC to avoid the draft, when the issue was him bringing a provably false excuse to shut off debate concerning his membership in a group with a overt racist/sexist agenda.)
I love this quote:
Alito tends to looks reasonable and moderate because of his style. But his style conceals a strategy.
His record shows a single right-wing activist strategy even when his words today try to cover it.
Kind of makes you miss the days of Robert Bork. Even if you disagree, as I do, with his originalist view of the Constitution at least the guy had balls to stand up for his beliefs even if it meant getting “borked.â€
After a few days of hearings, A New York Times editorial shows that after you parse what Alito has said moderate conservatives should be worried by an Alito appointment. It offers a nice summary of the same issues that Robert Gordon alluded to before the hearings started and emphasizes the basic point: Sam Alito’s statements are ambiguous but their meaning and his intentions with a Supreme Court position are not.
SameFacts has a article presenting another viewpoint on the importance of the Concerned Alumni of Princeton by trying to nip a Right Wing frame: equating Democratic inquiries on this to a Liberal McCarthyism or a Democratic “Swift Boating.â€
What I really dislike about articles like this is that these people insist on referring to Alito as a “conservative.†I hate when reporters resort to a clear and false frame.
Alito is not conservative, he is a right wing activist judge. Calling him a conservative is a slap in the face. None of his breaks with the majority in his appeals court opinions are not conservative by any stretch of the imagination.
That’s why I didn’t object to John Robert’s nomination, but do for Alito. I don’t mind a conservative court system—the Supreme Court has been historically conservative with the exception of the Warren Court (just look at the Dred Scot case), but I do mind an activist court. People like Alito actually delight in legislating from the bench.
Well Alito is on the fast track to being confirmed. Did anyone think otherwise?
Along the way, Ruth Marcus and Peter Shane point out what is most galling about this entire kabuki dance.