Scalito Admission: As "An Advocate Seeking A Job," I Can't Be Trusted to Tell the Truth
The big story this week on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is the discovery of a 1985 letter he wrote that confirms his extreme conservative views.
Alito's defense, voiced to Senator Dianne Feinstein, at the time he wrote the letter, he had been "an advocate seeking a job." Well, what the fuck does he think he is now?
But this is a second instance which confirms that - not only are his views extreme - he cannot be trusted to give credible testimony before the Senate. He implies that his 1985 letter was a matter of spin and we also know his 1990 testimony about recusing himself from particular cases in which he might have a conflict of interest was bogus.
But analysis of the 1985 letter does not end with his personal view on a constitutional right of choice or on credibility. The letter contains a number of other tidbits that give us a shocking view of Alito's conservative ideology.
Nathan Newman has the breakdown on Alito's disdain for the Warren court's reapportionment cases that helped ensure equal representation for all voters, or, as Mr. Newman artfully paraphrases it, "Alito's War on Democracy."
The letter also puts on display Alito's antithapy toward affirmative action. While he phrases his zeal as one against quotas, we must remember that conservatives have long referred to all affirmative action programs as being quotas. Their use of the term has always been broader than the liberal understanding of the word as applying only to programs similar to the one in Bakke. Moreover, quotas have been recognized as a constitutionally sufficient remedy for dealing with situations where there was past, actual discrimination or to remedy current, ongoing discrimination. In 1985, the Reagan administration was at war against even remedying these forms of discrimination as well as at war in general against all affirmative action. It is my suspicion that this is what Alito is cheering in his letter. It is not a limited cheer against Bakke-like programs. Indeed, further evidence of his views toward civil rights can be found in the fact that he sings the praises of the writings of William Buckley in the 1960s as well as Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign.
Certainly someone should find out what cases Alito is so proud of having worked on regarding these issues.
Alito's defense, voiced to Senator Dianne Feinstein, at the time he wrote the letter, he had been "an advocate seeking a job." Well, what the fuck does he think he is now?
But this is a second instance which confirms that - not only are his views extreme - he cannot be trusted to give credible testimony before the Senate. He implies that his 1985 letter was a matter of spin and we also know his 1990 testimony about recusing himself from particular cases in which he might have a conflict of interest was bogus.
But analysis of the 1985 letter does not end with his personal view on a constitutional right of choice or on credibility. The letter contains a number of other tidbits that give us a shocking view of Alito's conservative ideology.
Nathan Newman has the breakdown on Alito's disdain for the Warren court's reapportionment cases that helped ensure equal representation for all voters, or, as Mr. Newman artfully paraphrases it, "Alito's War on Democracy."
The letter also puts on display Alito's antithapy toward affirmative action. While he phrases his zeal as one against quotas, we must remember that conservatives have long referred to all affirmative action programs as being quotas. Their use of the term has always been broader than the liberal understanding of the word as applying only to programs similar to the one in Bakke. Moreover, quotas have been recognized as a constitutionally sufficient remedy for dealing with situations where there was past, actual discrimination or to remedy current, ongoing discrimination. In 1985, the Reagan administration was at war against even remedying these forms of discrimination as well as at war in general against all affirmative action. It is my suspicion that this is what Alito is cheering in his letter. It is not a limited cheer against Bakke-like programs. Indeed, further evidence of his views toward civil rights can be found in the fact that he sings the praises of the writings of William Buckley in the 1960s as well as Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign.
Certainly someone should find out what cases Alito is so proud of having worked on regarding these issues.
posted by Macswain at
10:03 AM
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