When was the last time major progressive organizations agreed about what we can do to have an effect on an issue of national importance?
Groups all over the country are asking us to CALL OUR SENATORS!
See
http://www.nominationwatch.org/2005/12/momentum_agains.... for a list of groups opposing Alito's confirmation.
What are you waiting for?
--CALL YOUR SENATORS!
Urge a filibuster of Alito's nomination!
Here are the TOLL-FREE numbers:
888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 and 800-426-8073
Be prepared to give your zip code. You need not be prepared to explain your position. In fact, it's probably best to get off the phone quickly so that more calls can come in.
-- To find fax numbers or contact info for your senator's district office, go to
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home What else can you do?
--Get other people you know to call their senators.
Think about the best ways you have to reach a lot of people. Then do it!
Given them the TOLL-FREE numbers:
888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 and 800-426-8073
--Call in to progressive talk shows. Ask them to give out the Senate numbers frequently.
A list of progressive talk shows, with times and phone numbers, can be found here:
www.nocrony.com
--Surf progressive websites, including blogs. If you find sites that aren't urging people to call their senators, write and ask them to do so. Give them the toll-free numbers.
--Post to this thread about what you're doing. That will encourage others and keep it kicked to the top of the page.
And, if you need reminding about what this is all for, read the following.
Thanks to Zan of Texas for compiling these talking points:
EXTREME VIEWS ARE OUT OF STEP WITH AMERICANS
Alito, if confirmed, could serve on the US Supreme Court for the rest of your life. (At age 55, his life expectancy from now is an additional 28 years or, in other words, the equivalent of 7 presidential terms.) Instead of occupying a centrist position, like Sandra Day O'Connor, he would move the court far to the right.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor "provided the swing vote 77 percent of the time. If confirmed, Alito would tip the high court's delicate balance radically to the right. Nearly always favoring the government, corporations and universities, Alito has ruled against individual rights in 84 percent of his dissents." --Marjorie Cohn, "Alito Sounds Death Knell for Individual Rights," t r u t h o u t, January 10, 2006,
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011006I.shtml Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe, in Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, places Alito to the right of Justice Roberts, and between Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/politics/politicsspec ...
"The debate over Judge Alito is generally presented as one between
Republicans and Democrats. But his testimony should trouble moderate
Republicans, especially those who favor abortion rights or are concerned about presidential excesses." -- Judge Alito, in His Own Words, NY Times Lead Editorial: January 12, 2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/opinion/12thur1.html ?...
UNITARY EXECUTIVE
Alliance for Justice (AFJ) wrote that Alito's "judicial record strongly suggests that he will ... interpret the Constitution as giving the president greater authority to evade Congressional statutes and constitutional limitations whenever deemed essential to national security." Indeed, in a memorandum he wrote as a lawyer in the Reagan Justice Department, Alito argued that the attorney general should receive absolute immunity from lawsuits when he illegally wiretaps Americans. --Marjorie Cohn, "Alito Sounds Death Knell for Individual Rights," t r u t h o u t, January 10, 2006,
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011006I.shtml In 2000, Alito told a Federalist Society meeting that he was a strong proponent of the "unitary executive," which means that all federal executive power resides in the president. This theory would reject discretionary executive power of independent agencies Congress has created since the New Deal, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Reserve Board. --Marjorie Cohn "Alito Sounds Death Knell for Individual Rights," t r u t h o u t, January 10, 2006,
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011006I.shtml SIGNING STATEMENTS
Alito was one of those pushing to elevate the power of the presidency two decades ago, by advocating "that the president make a "signing statement" indicating what he thinks the law means when he signs a bill. Even though the Constitution grants the lawmaking power only to Congress, and thus courts look to congressional intent to interpret statutes, Alito hoped that the president could divert the courts' focus away from congressional intent in favor of what he called "the President's intent." George W. Bush has issued at least 108 such "signing statements," according to the Washington Post. Most recently, Bush qualified his concurrence with the McCain amendment that outlaws torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, implying that he would be free to torture if he felt it was necessary for national security. --Marjorie Cohn, "Alito Sounds Death Knell for Individual Rights," t r u t h o u t, January 10, 2006,
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011006I.shtml Bush "issued a constitutionally ludicrous 'signing statement' on the McCain bill. The message: Whatever Congress intended the law to say, he intended to ignore it on the pretext the commander in chief is above the law. That twisted reasoning is what led to the legalized torture policies, not to mention the domestic spying program. ... Both of the offensive theories at work here - that a president's intent in signing a bill trumps the intent of Congress in writing it, and that a president can claim power without restriction or supervision by the courts or Congress - are pet theories of Judge Samuel Alito, the man Mr. Bush chose to tilt the Supreme Court to the right." -- The Imperial Presidency at Work,
The New York Times | Editorial, Sunday 15 January 2006,
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011506Y.shtml MEMORY LOSS
“Judge Alito continues to claim memory loss when it comes to his involvement with the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a group hostile to the university’s admission of women and increased enrollment of minorities. Even less plausible is his testimony that he was not aware of the group’s well-known anti-woman and anti-minority positions when he touted his CAP membership on a job application in the Reagan Administration." -- National Women's Law Center
SEX DISCRIMINATION
...“Judge Alito’s testimony about his record on the Third Circuit in employment discrimination cases does nothing to allay our concerns in this area, either. He has repeatedly taken positions that make it harder for victims of workplace discrimination to succeed in court or even to get to a jury. ...Samuel Alito's legal views would put women’s hard-won rights and liberties in grave danger." -- National Women's Law Center Co-President Marcia Greenberger, January 12, 2006,
http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=2599 §ion=newsroo...
ROE v. WADE
As Prof. Tribe also testified, with Alito on the court, "the court will cut back on Roe v. Wade, step by step, not just to the point where, as the moderate American center has it, abortion is cautiously restricted, but to the point where the fundamental underlying right to liberty becomes a hollow shell."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/politics/politicsspec ...
STATEMENT OF AL GORE re PRESIDENTIAL POWER
Speaking on Martin Luther King Day, Al Gore said:
"The President's judicial appointments are clearly designed to ensure that the courts will not serve as an effective check on executive power. As we have all learned, Judge Alito is a longtime supporter of a powerful executive - a supporter of the so-called unitary executive, which is more properly called the unilateral executive. Whether you support his confirmation or not - and I do not - we must all agree that he will not vote as an effective check on the expansion of executive power. ...
If this President's attempt to dramatically expand executive power goes unquestioned, our constitutional design of checks and balances will be lost. ...
Can it be true that any president really has such powers under our Constitution? If the answer is "yes" then under the theory by which these acts are committed, are there any acts that can on their face be prohibited? If the President has the inherent authority to eavesdrop, imprison citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can't he do?
--
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011606Y.shtml STATEMENTS OF SENATORS ON THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said, "It's important to know whether would serve with judicial independence or as a surrogate for the president nominating him." --Marjorie Cohn, "Alito Sounds Death Knell for Individual Rights," t r u t h o u t, January 10, 2006,
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011006I.shtml Sen. Leahy also said, "The Supreme Court must be an institution where the Bill of Rights and human dignity are honored. At a time when the President is seeking unprecedented power, the Supreme Court needs to act as a check and to provide balance. Based on the hearing and his record, I have no confidence that Jude Alito would provide that check and balance. In good conscience, based on the record, I cannot support this nomination.”
http://www.nominationwatch.org/2006/01/senators_are_st ....
Sen. Richard Durbin: "In the Bible, Solomon personified the virtue of wisdom, and when God offered him any gift, Solomon asked for a caring heart. In the record, the writings, the works, and the life of Samuel Alito, I searched for evidence of his caring heart - evidence that for the next two or three decade he would use his position on the Supreme Court to enlarge our freedom, protect our privacy, and respect the delicate balance of power and responsibility our Constitution creates. At the end of the day, at this historic moment, I cannot say with confidence that Samuel Alito meets that test. I will vote no on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.”
http://www.nominationwatch.org/2006/01/senators_are_st ....
Sen. Edward Kennedy: "{H}is views on issues of particular concern to women should give every woman pause ... Judge Alito's testimony failed to resolve the very serious concerns that he's itching to overturn Roe v. Wade. ... His record just does not show a judge who is committed to equal justice under law."
http://www.nominationwatch.org/2006/01/senators_are_st ....
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