Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Will the Radical Right Pull a Miers on Alito?

Could it be possible that the Extreme Right might have popped the cork on the champagne a little early with regard to Alito? Here is what Arlen Specter had to say (via Kevin Drum):

The chairman said he had met with Alito for an hour and 15 minutes Monday and that the veteran appeals court judge assured him “he believes there is a right to privacy under the liberty clause of the United States Constitution” and “he accepts Griswold v. Connecticut as good law.”

....Alito also assured Specter that his view of legal precedent was that “the longer a decision was in effect and the more times it had been affirmed by different courts and different justices appointed by different presidents, it had extra precedential value.”
I think the issue here isn't what Alito says he believes. He could simply claim later that he changed his mind on the matter. The issue is whether the Radical Right believes what Alito is saying.

I read somewhere that Judge Luttig, who was also on the short list for O'Connor's seat, was a proponent of "super stare decisis," i.e., the notion that a long standing precedent such as Griswold must be given a wide berth. I figured that belief might have cost Luttig his shot at O'Connor's seat. Now Alito is saying something similar.

It will be interesting to see how the Extreme Right responds to this.

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