Posted on 12/30/2005 2:35:25 PM PST by new yorker 77
For the Seton Hall Law School students who watched the Manhattan skyline from the windows of their school library as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks unfolded, the chance to take a seminar on terrorism and civil liberties was too relevant to pass up. Each week for two hours, under the tutelage of a distinguished federal appellate judge by the name of Samuel A. Alito Jr., the students would hash out issues they knew were or soon would be a big deal as far as jurisprudence goes.
Typical of the class, just working out a definition of "terrorism" took the students weeks, and only then remained a work in progress, they said. Alito would simply shrug when asked whether the latest version was right or wrong, as if to remind them how undefined the issue remained in the immediate post-Sept. 11 years, they said.
"This was one of those wide-open debates, on something so prevalent in our lives, that was going to define our time in history. And to discuss this with someone who would be involved in the issue was incredible," said former student Obadiah English, a Boston lawyer who had watched from the law library several stories above downtown Newark, N.J., as the second World Trade Center tower collapsed.Alito soon may be more involved in defining the balance between fighting terrorism and civil rights than any of his students may have predicted. President Bush nominated the New Jersey judge Oct. 31 to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Former students said that Alito was friendly and outgoing but reserved: the type of professor you would like to have a beer with after class, but never did. And yes, his conservatism was well-known but was never in evidence in the classroom, they said.
"The judge kind of took it all in. He never imposed his beliefs as much as there were times when he could have. I didn't understand that then, that a judge shouldn't be discussing feelings. Times I wanted him to inject his thought process and opinion, and it just didn't happen," said former student Joseph Arnold, a Philadelphia lawyer who also took the class in 2003.
The survey class, with enrollment capped at 14, quickly filled. In 2004, Alito taught it a second time, again to a full classroom.
Patrick Hobbs, the dean of Seton Hall Law School, said the exercises were probably as helpful for Alito as for his students.
"It was going to be something he fully expected: to have those topics come up before him before the 3rd Circuit and that students would find engaging. So you get to put them in the incubator of the classroom and see how bright people deal with them. That can only help inform him as a judge," said Hobbs, a Democrat who supports Alito's nomination.
Alito hasn't been back to teach since last year. The school had to cancel the terrorism and civil liberties class in January after the would-be Alito replacement called Hobbs at the last minute and begged off.
"He said, 'Tomorrow morning, the president is introducing me as the new secretary of Homeland Security,' " Hobbs said of the prospective instructor, Michael Chertoff, a federal judge at the time.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.
© Copyright 2005, The News & Observer Publishing Company
With all due respect, nothing we at FR haven't known for, say, the last 13 years or so.
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.