We need to know where Alito would steer court

[Wordie]

We need to know where Alito would steer court

Judge Samuel Alito’s assurances in the Senate Judiciary hearings that the president is bound by the Constitution and that he (Alito) will only be bound by “the law” skirts several issues of just what the Constitution requires and which rules of law he would apply.

Rather, he should have been asked to respond to the following questions:

1. Does he accept the new “unitary executive” doctrine that the president has almost full power in interpreting what the president can do and cannot do? Or should the Supreme Court, as it determined in Marbury v. Madison (l803), remain the final arbiter on such issues?

2. In what kind of national emergencies may the president override constitutional guarantees to the rights of individuals in the body of the Constitution (the writ of habeas corpus) or the Bill of Rights (no searches without probable cause)?

If these guarantees are to be suspended under conditions of less than total war, is the president required to report to someone outside the court what he has done?

3. Do signing statements issued by the president provide legal grounds for his refusal to enforce specific provisions in the law? How can this policy be distinguished from the line-item veto, which the Supreme Court has already declared an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power?

President Bush claims authority on all the above issues. Some of Judge Alito’s earlier statements and rulings suggest that he accepts similar constitutional doctrines. If so, his appointment could consolidate the turn of the United States in a new authoritarian direction. If so, we should know it now.

BETTY GLAD

Olin Jenkins Professor of Political Science

University of South Carolina

Columbia

These are great questions. Email/fax/call them in to your senators!

[annabanana]

1. I think we already do..

He didn't disavow ANY of his earlier radical positions during the hearings.

[channa18]

2. No...I heard more than I want to....

I want him to disappear and never raise his reactionary head again.

[Wordie]

3. These are the crucial questions.

Without having the answers to these, how can ANY Senator vote to confirm him? These questions should be sent to all the senators, for their consideration. They will not want to confirm a Judge who threatens to elevate the power of the executive to such a degree that their own power would be eclipsed.

[Wordie]

4. Dupe...sorry.