Not All Law Is Politics in Robes

On October 31, 2005, President Bush nominated Samuel Alito to the position of Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. They have the hearings to give the public a clearer understanding of what sides of issues the upcoming judge my face in his term of being a justice in the Supreme Court. However, Alito would not tell Senators how he would resolve contentious issues that may come before the court.

In response to Alito's silence Senator Joseph Biden suggested that the Senate scrap confirmation hearings and simply debate the nominee's decisions as if they were considering legislation. Dozens of organizations such as the National Association of Manufacturers and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence have staked out positions on Judge Alito's confirmation based upon their perception of whether a Justice Alito will hamper or help the implementation of their specific policy agenda.

Senator Joseph Biden voted no on the nomination of Judge Alito to the Supreme Court for three reasons. First, his expansive view of executive power; secondly, his narrow view of the role of Congress; and third, his grudging reading of anti-discrimination law reflecting, in Biden's view, a lack of understanding of congressional intent and the nature of discrimination in the 21st century.

In 1984, Judge Alito wrote that he did not question the authority that the attorney general should have absolute immunity in cases involving wiretaps, showing his expansive view of presidential power.

Senator Biden is convinced that Judge Alito will join with the present members of the court who have struck down three dozen federal laws, more than six times the rate of activism over the history of our republic, laws which said you can't have guns within a hundred to a thousand feet of an elementary school, laws battling violence against women, laws requiring the clean-up of low-level nuclear waste and laws designed to ensure freedom of religion.

Biden believes that Judge Alito lacks the understanding, in his view, as to how prejudice plays out in the real world and has a very restrictive view of the anti-discrimination legislation that Congress has passed over the last 30 years. All public officials including judges in Biden's view must understand prejudice still lurks in the shadows. And his examination of Justice Alito's record demonstrates that he does