New USSC Nominee: Alito
It's official: the latest nominee is a white man from New England who loves baseball. Just great. Chalk another one up for the good ol' boyz club. I haven't heard much about him yet, but it looks like Bush is trying to appeal to his Conservative base. In other words: anti-abortion, anti-civil rights and "hostile to immigrants".
3 Comments:
"Assuming that Judge Alito is confirmed, there will be time enough for the critics to mutter Scalito whenever he joins Justice Scalia in a decision they dislike. But for now, we should give careful consideration to his record. And what a thorough record it is: a decade and a half of judicial opinions that deserve close study, not facile comparison to the work of Justice Scalia.
[We] should give serious study to his record; [we] may discover that there are varieties of judicial conservatives, just as there are varieties of political conservatives, and that Samuel Alito is not Antonin Scalia.
In a more general sense, President Bush should be commended for nominating someone with so substantial a judicial record. In the decades since the defeat of Robert Bork's nomination, presidents have unfortunately tended toward 'stealth' nominees out of fear that actual evidence of the person's jurisprudence would only give ammunition to his opponents. To oppose Judge Alito because his record is conservative is to condemn us to a succession of bland nominees and to deprive future presidents of the opportunity to choose from the men and women who have dedicated long years to judicial work."
-- ANN ALTHOUSE, New York Times (11-01-2005)
I am withholding judgment of Justice Alito. He should be assessed based on relevant issues and his judgment. But, with that in mind, I am disappointed that Justice O'Connor is being replaced by someone who:
- is not a woman
- is not a visible minority
Beyond his legal competence, I believe that his perspective is influenced by his gender and his background. Unfortunately, compared to the genders and backgrounds of the other justices (currently there is only one woman on the bench), Alito doesn't add much.
Except, potentially, the deciding vote on some upcoming crucial decisions.
;)
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