Thursday, March 22, 2007
Crito Alito
Just on the basis of Justice Alito's statements this past week on the issue of the First Amendment and free speech rights (the so-called "Bong Hits for Jesus" case), I'm hesitantly willing to concede that George W. Bush may have actually gotten one thing, the nomination of Samuel Alito, correct in his wretchedly pathetic presidency. I was particularly heartened by Justice Alito's critique of public schools using ambiguous arguments for the expansion of state power and curtailment of individual expression.
(Sidenote: With more than one scholarly Italian-American on today's court, maybe the idiots in Hollywood and the so-called "non-racist liberal" mainstream media will stop portraying them all as breakers of the law rather than defenders? Spike Lee, that means you too.)
I don't expect Justice Alito to be the Gatekeeper of Free Speech that Hugo Black was (a justice that took every word of "Congress shall make NO LAW" quite literally). It is a wonderful thing, however, to see that there is at least one Republican-nominee on the SCOTUS that can still faintly remember what constituted conservative jurisprudence, before the arrival of Le Texan Terrible and his Son of Great Society endless welfare-warfare state.
For those of us who'd rather read and use their own brains, as opposed to accepting the facile regurgitations of Al Franken, Bill O'Reilly, Chris Matthews, Rush Limbaugh or other puerile pundits, you can access the oral arguments here.
As a side rant, those pebble-brained partisans (LEFT or RIGHT) that complain about the nature of our land's Highest Court should remember that one reason the Founding Fathers chose to make Supreme Court justices lifetime appointees was to give them an opportunity to decide matters of constitutional law with little fear of political repercussion, the popularity contest psychology and cognitive stupidity of elections, or having to appeal to the lowly IQs and jurisprudential ignorance of the moronic masses. On historical balance, this decision by the Constitution's Framers has done more good than harm.
Case in point: Earl Warren who, as governor of California in the 1940s was responsible for the unjust incarceration of the Japanese-American population in his state (somebody PLEASE bitchslap Michelle Malkin for me). As an elected official, Warren bowed to the pressures of elections, polls, and a racist idiot electorate. As a Supreme Court justice, however, he was able to humanely and sanely rule on integration in the 1950s, even at the point of death threats and physical intimidation, without the fear of electoral repercussion or financial support.
Labels: First Amendment, Samuel Alito, Supreme Court
