Alito Nomination Could Spell Trouble
Those of you who know absolutely nothing about the Supreme Court or all this talk about nominations, this article should just sum it up for you a little bit.
Samuel Alito, the man I have been saying we should hope Bush doesn’t nominate for about two months now, was nominated this morning to replace Sandra Day O’Connor. Alito is known as a strict conservative and has a very direct interpretation of the 250-year-old Constitution. He is more than qualified for the position, attending Harvard and Yale. He has served as a judge on Federal Courts before and currently is a Court of Appeals judge in the third district. Just a step down from the Supreme Court.
Problem is his case history. He has voted contrastingly against privacy in abortion and gun cases ruling that women should have to inform husbands of an attempted abortion but on the contrary, private citizens should be allowed to own assault weapons. Also abortion is a touchy issue in which no clear-cut rule is known from Alito. He voted in favor of not banning partial birth abortions in New Jersey because it was unconstitutional. With the fuss about Roe v. Wade possibly being overturned, it seems the precedent would hold when looking at Alito’s record of voting. He also has voted for civil rights by ruling in favor of an African American’s right to a fair trial. With all these different rulings, it’s hard to say where he stands even though he has been labeled ultra conservative.
What this mean’s is that he will uphold the precedents and the Constitution to a literal sense. Which may or may not be a bad thing considering the recent laws passed limiting gun control, limiting freedom and privacy, and allowing for corporate freedoms. But for the time being abortion and civil rights seem to be safe.
The Democrats should Filibuster this nominatin. If they don’t it will be shocking. Expect the mudslinging to begin over Alito because of the replacement of O’Connor being so important to the make-up of the court. She was the swing vote of the court, usually making it 5-4 in recent rulings. Breyer, Ginsburg, Stevens, and Souter on one side and Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, Rehnquist on the other and O’Connor made the difference. Souter votes conservative sometimes, so he can’t be categorized with Breyer, Ginsburg, and Stevens in evry case. With Roberts voting conservative, taking Rehnquist’s place as Chief, the court remains somewhat split. But take O’Connor out of the equation and replace her with Alito, it’s almost a guarantee of at least 5 justices voting conservative. This is the problem Democrats face and should fight it to the end.
I would venture out on a limb and say that Bush will get to nominate at least one more justice if not two before he leaves office in 2008. Let’s just hope the ultra conservative court doesn’t ammend the constitution reversing the 22nd Ammendment and allow Bush another term in the meantime. That would probably be the worst thing that could happen.
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