Alito Nominated for SCOTUS
President Bush announced earlier today the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Alito, nicknamed "Scalito" for his ideological similarities to Justice Antonin Scalia, has a substantial "paper trail" of judgements in opposition to abortion and in favor of somewhat limited government. According to an article on Bloomberg.com, he is a "a frequent participant in events sponsored by the Federalist Society" and has taught courses on constitutional law, terrorism and civil liberties.
Mark Moller over at the Cato Institute, a rather mainstream libertarian (read: moderate and somewhat pro-government) think-tank, has said that the nomination of Alito is a "step in the right direction," adding that "the President had nowhere to go but up" after his nomination of Harriet Miers.
For the time being it seems that conservative and limited-government types are pretty satisfied with the pick. Given that there were no proponents of truly limited government (meaning strict interpretation of the Commerce Clause, enforcement of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments) it seems Alito is about as good a pick as any. It does say something, however, about modern conservatism that Republicans (if you can call Republicans true conservatives) are far from even attempting to roll back government legislatively or judicially. With the nomination of Alito, Bush is basically just catering to the significant pro-life elements within his party without showing any intention to return our federal government to a reasonable size.
As sad as this is, it is the reality we are faced with. Hopefully as the Republican party takes on its role as a de facto big government party, unsatisfied voters will make their way to more liberty-minded parties who might (emphasis on might) be less prone to drink the kool-aid of big government once in power.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how far the Democrats are willing to go to oppose this nomination. Conservatives have so far acted as if the chances of a big battle over Alito are pretty slim, however there are a good number of groups on the left who seem willing to stand their ground. There is a chance that a filibuster might result, although that chance is much less than it would have been with the nomination of Brown, Luttig, Owen, or a few of the other potential nominees. More on Alito's views and the nomination process as the story develops.
Mark Moller over at the Cato Institute, a rather mainstream libertarian (read: moderate and somewhat pro-government) think-tank, has said that the nomination of Alito is a "step in the right direction," adding that "the President had nowhere to go but up" after his nomination of Harriet Miers.
For the time being it seems that conservative and limited-government types are pretty satisfied with the pick. Given that there were no proponents of truly limited government (meaning strict interpretation of the Commerce Clause, enforcement of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments) it seems Alito is about as good a pick as any. It does say something, however, about modern conservatism that Republicans (if you can call Republicans true conservatives) are far from even attempting to roll back government legislatively or judicially. With the nomination of Alito, Bush is basically just catering to the significant pro-life elements within his party without showing any intention to return our federal government to a reasonable size.
As sad as this is, it is the reality we are faced with. Hopefully as the Republican party takes on its role as a de facto big government party, unsatisfied voters will make their way to more liberty-minded parties who might (emphasis on might) be less prone to drink the kool-aid of big government once in power.
In the meantime, it will be interesting to see how far the Democrats are willing to go to oppose this nomination. Conservatives have so far acted as if the chances of a big battle over Alito are pretty slim, however there are a good number of groups on the left who seem willing to stand their ground. There is a chance that a filibuster might result, although that chance is much less than it would have been with the nomination of Brown, Luttig, Owen, or a few of the other potential nominees. More on Alito's views and the nomination process as the story develops.
posted by Dan at 8:29 PM
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