Harriet Miers was President Bush’s choice to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by Sandra Day O’Connor. Concerns were raised on the left and right about her familiarity with Constitutional law. The death blow to her nomination came in the form of attacks from the radical right wing of the GOP that she was insufficiently conservative. Faced with this cry of political incorrectness, Miers withdrew.
President Bush has nominated Samuel Alito to fill the seat. This nomination signals Bush going back to the extreme right wing of his party with hat in hand, asking forgiveness—and is out of step with the mainstream values held by most Americans.
Alito’s rulings on numerous cases would disturb most people. For example, he advanced a position to reduce women to male property—requiring them to seek the permission of their husbands in order to make decisions about their own bodies. He has taken positions which would have made it more difficult for victims of sex and race discrimination to achieve justice, and for African Americans to receive a fair trial. He issued rulings to limit the ability of Congress to restrict the sale of machine guns to private citizens.
Fortunately, the Supreme Court overturned all of those decisions. In one case, even conservative Justice William Rehnquist found Alito’s reasoning to be baseless. In many such rulings, Alito’s positions are not the “conservative” position, showing judicial restraint, but rather display a willingness to advance the right wing position from the bench—in some cases over the explicit legislation of Congress.
The elevation of Judge Alito would change the character of the Supreme Court for the worse and affect the daily lives of Americans for years. I urge you to contact your senators and express your opinions on Alito’s nomination.
