Now that is more like it. A nominee the President and his buddies can all be proud of. Samuel Alito has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit since his appointment by the first President Bush in 1990. In that time, he has done nothing but buff up his right wing credentials.
And this judge ain’t gonna take no flack from a bunch of uppity women folk. At least, not unless they get permission to give it from their husbands first (unmarried women just need not apply at all).
In his famous dissent in Planned Parenthood v. Casey he made clear his view that women must ask permission from their husbands before they have medical procedures (or as blogger Joel Achtenbach put added, “…or go shopping or try to ‘talk back’ or anything like that.”).
The Supreme Court disagreed with Judge Alito on that one. The court in its majority said, "For the great many women who are victims of abuse inflicted by their husbands, or whose children are the victims of such abuse, a spousal notice requirement enables the husband to wield an effective veto over his wife's decision."
Or as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's commented, "Women do not lose their
constitutionally protected liberty when they marry."
But then she's just a woman.
But hey, the Judge’s opinions on abortion actual are only the tip of the iceberg.
Judge Alito joined the majority of a sharply divided Third Circuit in holding that female students who were physically sexually abused, including touching and sodomization, by fellow students during the course of a class do not have a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 because the state does not have a special duty of caring for them. D.R. v. Middle Bucks Area Vocational Technical Sch., 972 F.2d 1364 (3d Cir. 1992). Anyway, if your daughter, or you, happens to be sodomized at school, don’t come crying about it to the champion of family values Judge Samuel Alito.
And as far as racial discrimination goes. Well, you know, the judge would tell you that whole racism schlock just gets blown out of proportion.
Alito dissented from a decision in favor of a Marriott Hotel manager who said she had been discriminated against on the basis of race. The majority explained that Alito would have protected racist employers by “immuniz[ing] an employer from the reach of Title VII if the employer’s belief that it had selected the ‘best’ candidate was the result of conscious racial bias.” [Bray v. Marriott Hotels, 1997]
And just because you’re handicapped, don't come crying to Judge Alito over spilt milk.
In Nathanson v. Medical College of Pennsylvania, the majority said the standard for proving disability-based discrimination articulated in Alito’s dissent was so restrictive that “few if any…cases would survive summary judgment.” [Nathanson v. Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1991]
However, if you like strip searches, you couldn’t be more happy with President Bush’s pick.
In Doe v. Groody, Alito agued that police officers had not violated constitutional rights when they strip searched a mother and her ten-year-old daughter while carrying out a search warrant that authorized only the search of a man and his home. [Doe v. Groody, 2004] Doe v. Goody...just sounds cute, doesn't it.
And don’t think he would just parrot other conservative judges’ opinions. After all he split with former Chief Justice Rehnquist on the Family and Medical Leave Act. Judge Alito wrote an opinion that Congress had no authority to require state employers to comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act. Justice Rehnquist wrote the Supreme Court’s majority opinion that repudiated Alito on that one.
And, dad gummite, he is a crime fighter.
Lawrence Lustberg, a New Jersey criminal defense lawyer who has known Alito since 1981 and tried cases before him on the Third Circuit, describes him as "an activist conservatist judge" who is tough on crime and narrowly construes prisoners' and criminals' rights. "He's very prosecutorial from the bench. He has looked to be creative in his conservatism, which is, I think, as much a Rehnquist as a Scalia trait," Lustberg says. Thank God, this guy is a creative not a compassionate conservative.
And with Judge Alito on the bench our machine guns are safe. Alito ruled that the feds could not regulate the possession of machine guns. In a dissent to a ruling that upheld the constitutionality of a federal law banning the possession of machine guns, Alito argued for greater state rights in reasoning that Congress had no authority to regulate private gun possession.
And if all that isn't enough to sell you on this dude, well, as Orin Kerr, Associate Professor of Law at George Washington University, says at some website called the Volokh Conspiracy, “Judge Alito is one of the most likable people you'll ever meet. He comes off as modest, quiet, and very thoughtful, but he also has a sharp sense of humor.” Not only that but University of North Carolina Law Professor Eric Mueller says of Alito, “He seems younger than his years. There is a boysihness to him.”
So lets get out there and throw up a big cheer for the guy who could make the Supreme Court fun again – Samuel Alito. Sources: Legal Momentum, U.S. News and World Report, Court TV, Underneath Their Robes, Save the Court, Washington Post, Liberal Oasis, Think Progress
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