Alito

[avram]

The recent news about Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is that he wrote a qualifications statement back in 1985, when he was seeking a position as Assistant Attorney General, in which he stated that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion". I'm actually more interested in other parts of the letter (emphasis mine):

When I first became interested in government and politics during the 1960s, the greatest influences on my views were the writings of William F. Buckley, Jr., the National Review, and Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign. In college, I developed a deep interest in constitutional law, motivated in large part by disagreement with Warren Court decisions, particularly in the areas of criminal procedure, the Establishment Clause, and reapportionment. I discovered the writings of Alexander Bickel advocating judicial restraint, and it was largely for this reason that I decided to go to Yale Law School.

A few minutes with Google and Wikipedia told me what Warren Court cases Alito was talking about:

Reapportionment:

Baker v Carr (1962)

Established that voting district reapportionment is a matter in which federal courts can intervene.

Reynolds v Sims (1964)

Established that state legislative districts had to be roughly equal in population, according to principle of "one man, one vote".

Wesberry v Sanders (1964)

Established that congressional districts had to be roughly equal in population.

Criminal Procedure:

Escobedo v Illinois (1964)

Affirmed right to remain silent and have a lawyer present, making it harder for police to coerce confessions.

Miranda v Arizona (1966)

You've heard of this one; it's the case which established that police must inform suspects of their 5th and 6th Amendment rights.

Establishment Clause:
This refers to part of the First Amendment that prohibits Congress from establishing religion.

Engel v Vitale (1962)

Established that school prayer is uncontitutional.

Abington Township School District v Schempp (1963)

Declared school-sanctioned, organized Bible reading in public schools to be unconstitutional.

So, there's Sam Alito's America: A land in which rural voters can have hundreds of times as much legislative representation as city voters, where the cops can beat or trick confessions out of you without a lawyer present, and where public schools are places of religious indoctrination.

And he might not be as big a fan of Alexander Bickel's as he claims to be.

Comments

[macabee.livejournal.com]

Nice bit of investigative journalism there. In the context that you used it, you've seemed to have scooped the major papers here....