Should Alito's philosophy be fair game?

[Thom Little]

As supporters and opponents of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito prepare for his confirmation hearings early next year, the battle has been joined over whether it's fair game for Democrats to oppose him based on his strongly conservative philosophy alone.

That fight--playing out in television advertisements, public debates and private senatorial meetings--is part of an argument that has intensified as presidents' nomination strategies have shifted, leading them to choose younger, more ideological justices.

Some say it is deeply unfair, and perhaps unconstitutional, to torpedo a nominee based on ideology or philosophy if the person is highly qualified. Others say that because presidents pick nominees based on their ideology, senators are entirely within their rights to reject them for the same reason.

.......

After meeting with Alito recently, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he found the judge to be "bright, capable and down to earth." But he added, "In case after case, Judge Alito seems to find a way to rule on the side of business over the consumer; on the side of the employer over the employee, and often against civil rights, against workers' rights, against women's rights."



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0511290163nov29,1,2768579.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed

[Demeter]

1. Alito Is Stuck In A Time Warp

His brain froze back in the first half of the last century. He's not mentally able to make sensible and just rulings for the first half of this century.

In fact, his writings display a desire to bring back those bad old days--pre-civil rights, pre-women's equality, and rampant McCarthyism. The Imperial Presidency of Nixon is his idea of America.

I don't want to relive those horrible days, nor wish them on anybody's children.

[ronatchig]

2. Not just Alito but

each and every Thug or thug light should have their nasty little agenda inspected by not just congress but by Americans.
Is it not obvious by now that the Republican agenda is leading to the dissolution of our country as we know it.
Are they not for crowning Bush the Supreme Commander of Earth? aka Antichrist.
Are they not gaga over the rights of Corporate person hood?
Could they not be construed as worshiping at the feet of Mammon?
Are they not intent stripping every free person on the earth of basic God given rights and replacing these rights with a set of rules authorizing ownership of all the world to themselves?
Obviously I think we should be accusing them of all the evils they have loosed upon us over the last 25 years.(and any others we think of on the way,hee hee)

I think the time is ripe to have a serious discussion of the deregulated free market theory these nut jobs with plagued us with.

But then I'm just a eater.

[FrankLee]

3. Scalito! Lock up your mojo!

[depakid]

4. Some say....

Notice how the right wing media always prefaces their propaganda with phrases like this?

Nobody who's studied the issue would ever honestly say that it was unfair (much less, unconstitutional) for the Senate to reject a nominee based on ideology or philosophy.

More junk from the Tribune Co.