Posted on 11/11/2005 8:11:03 PM PST by neverdem
Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. has vigorously defended freedom of expression, adopting a stance that places him among a group of conservative judges with a libertarian streak.
Judge Alito's broad reading of the freedom of speech and press clauses of the First Amendment stands in contrast with his narrower interpretation of other constitutional rights, including the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and the Sixth Amendment's guarantees of fair trial rights for criminal defendants.
Judge Alito, President Bush's choice for the Supreme Court, has found First Amendment violations in a school board's antiharassment policy, in a ban on liquor advertisements in a college newspaper and in the removal of a boy's drawing of Jesus from a schoolhouse wall.
But this willingness to protect expression has not extended to cases involving prisoners and government employees. In a dissent this year, for instance, he argued that officials in a maximum security prison were free to punish inmates by barring their access to newspapers and magazines.
"Judge Alito is part of the new breed of conservative libertarian jurists who are sensitive to safeguarding our free-speech freedoms," said Ronald K. L. Collins, a scholar at the First Amendment Center, a research and advocacy group in Virginia. "They're particularly sensitive when it comes to issues involving speech and commerce and political orthodoxy."
These judges tend to be very protective of speech rights when they involve the marketplace of ideas, or the core of the First Amendment, said Jesse H. Choper, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Among the generally conservative judges who share Judge Alito's approach to free expression are Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and Judge Alex Kozinski on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco. Justice Antonin Scalia may also be considered in this...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Very good!
Not good
Boy, I hope so.
You mean he actually thinks we should respect the Constitution?!? HORRORS! No wonder the NYT is so worried about him!
PS: If you sucker punch one of the vermin burning the flag it would be worth the night in jail and the fine.
This is somewhat encouraging, but it really doesn't tell you how expansive his view of free speech is. For instance does he consider porn free speech? It also doesn't tell us how much leeway he would give states to regulate speech.
And the mention of Scalia is worth a laugh. Yeah he was good on flag burning, but Ill bet thats about as far as it goes for him. In fact, just recently he suggested that obscenity laws need to be made more clear. And of course, he was one of the justices that voted against striptease as free speech.
New York Slimes trying to play divide and conquer.
Considering the attack beginning against the First Amendment from the organized forces of Islam, thank God for Sam Alito. I hope he gets confirmed quickly and withour a lot of B/S.
Libertarian = porn legalizing, drug legalizing liberal.
"New York Slimes trying to play divide and conquer".
You are on it!!!
"Freedom of expression", like "Separation of Church and Sate" and the right to an abortion, simply do not exist in the COnstitution.
The COnstitution protects the right to free speech and the press.
Burning the American Flag is an act - an act of desecration to an American symbols - and in politics, as in religion, symbols are EXTREMELY important.
Libertarian: A person with faith in the natural wisdom and restraint of pro wrestling fans
Alito is more in line with the type of judges we need than Roberts. Alito will be way to the left of scalia and thomas but he won't be a squishy moderate like Roberts and O'Conner was.
Ping.
Antipathy to drugs and porn is a common trait between some conservatives and all islamics.
Please explain how it hurts you if someone else looks at porn.
Likewise with drugs, much of our crime involves activities intended to get money to pay for drugs. Legal drugs do not mean that you personally have to take them.
The MSM tried this sort of thing with John Roberts, as well.
Given a choice between someone who would leave both porn and political speech legal, or forbid both, I'd much rather have the former.
Further, I would suggest that in the era of the Internet, it would be difficult to really enforce a prohibition against pornography without giving the government far more power than it should safely be allowed to possess.
"Instead of confronting the First Amendment issue that is squarely presented by that incident," Judge Alito wrote, "the court ducks the issue and bases its decision on a spurious procedural ground."
He added: "I would hold that public school students have the right to express religious views in class discussion or in assigned work, provided that their expression falls within the scope of the discussion or the assignment and provided that the school's restriction on expression does not satisfy strict scrutiny."
So far so good. No wonder the NYT is worried.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.