Jonathan Turley Gives Alito Thumbs Down
by Joe Gandelman
Jonathan Turley, Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University, was a huge presence in print and broadcast media during the Clinton impeachment era. You could say he was Bill Clinton's worst academic nightmare since Turley would give highly reasoned pro-impeachment analyses that the Clinton White House clearly did not want to hear.
Republicans loved it and frequently quoted him. But they're less likely to like or quote what he writes in USA Today about Judge Samuel Alito's bid to join the Supreme Court:
The confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito will focus greatly on his stated opposition to Roe v. Wade. The obsession with abortion in American politics has had an anaerobic effect on past confirmation hearings, sucking the air out of other issues. For Alito, this may have the welcomed effect of obscuring a more troubling question from his past writings and cases: Alito's extreme views of government authority over citizens' rights.
Despite my agreement with Alito on many issues, I believe that he would be a dangerous addition to the court in already dangerous times for our constitutional system. Alito's cases reveal an almost reflexive vote in favor of government, a preference based not on some overriding principle but an overriding party.
In my years as an academic and a litigator, I have rarely seen the equal of Alito's bias in favor of the government. To put it bluntly, when it comes to reviewing government abuse, Samuel Alito is an empty robe.
There's a lot more in between before he performs his final verbal kick-in-the-pants:
An independent judiciary means little if our judges are not independently minded. In criminal, immigration and other cases, Alito is one of the government's most predictable votes on the federal bench. Though his supporters have attempted to portray this as merely a principle of judicial deference, it is a raw form of judicial bias.
The Alito vote might prove to be the single most important decision on the future of our constitutional system for decades to come. While I generally defer to presidents in their choices for the court, Samuel Alito is the wrong nominee at the wrong time for this country.
If the initial tone of the hearings are any indication, and seeing sentiments expressed in print by someone like Turley, what seemed unlikely a month ago seems more likely now: a Democratic filibuster, partisan trench warefare, and the triggering of the nuclear option. It may be too early to flatly predict it...but although Alito's supporters believe he has performed well it's clear that in some quarter he has a lot more persuading to do..
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Jonathan Turley Gives Alito Thumbs Down
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