Liberal Former Alito Clerk: Don't "F" Alito

Townhall.com ^ | 12 Jan 2006 | Susan Sullivan

[mvpel]

She's also a most rare bird: an honest, thinking liberal.

If she were truly "honest" and "thinking," she wouldn't favor gun bans.

[traviskicks]

This author confirms that Alito is not conservative enough... How about JRB?

http://www.neoperspectives.com/janicerogersbrown.htm

[okie01]

I kidded him about being a liberal and sticking up for a conservative judge. He said "well, sticking up for this one, at any rate."

There is hope for both, then. From their personal experience, in at least two cases (Judge Alito and you), they now know that all conservatives are not knuckledragging monsters.

[johniegrad]

You are spot on. This article only proposes that the "conservative that I know" is OK but all other conservatives are evil. It's the same mentally that leads people to conclude that all doctors are money grubbing quacks except for my doctor who is really a good guy. I doubt she learned much about people's beliefs if this reflects her thinking about Judge Alito vis a vis conservatives in general.

[FourtySeven]

I'd rather if Suzie had just kept her mouth shut.

A liberal agrees with Alito's nomination, and one as flaming as this?

It depresses and concerns me.

Then again, maybe she's just an idiot. Not to hard to believe that given her leftist "credentials".

[proudpapa]

If Alito is more conservative that SDO, then it is a victory for conservatives.

The question yet to be answered is how big is the victory.

[Right Cal Gal]

He's a really funny guy - probably one of the few who doesn't push the liberal agenda and has respect for opposing viewpoints. One afternoon we all weren't busy, and he asked what I would be up to this weekend. I answered that being a good conservative, I'd be out "kicking puppies, starving children and trying to deprive at least two minority groups of their civil rights." The mega-liberal standing next to him looked at me like I crawled out of a piece of cheese; he, on the other hand, laughed like hell.

[right-wingin_It]

I didn't hear that one. I just know that listening to her during recent oral arguments, she sounded like she had the beginnigs of dementia creeping in. It was like litstening to, say, Sen Byrd talk. You know, not there in a senile way.

[Chesterbelloc]

Susan Sullivan is upset because she personally knows for a fact that they are telling lies about Alito, but when the next guy/gal comes along that she does not personally know she will go right back to believing the lies they tell.

[ShadowAce]

Bet you won't see her highlighted in the mainstream media.

Someone should post this over at DU...

[CitizenUSA]

quefstar wrote: "I'm not so sure that years from now we will look back at this week as a victory for conservatism."

It all depends on your definition of conservatism. If it means stacking the SCOTUS with ideologues who will vote their ideology versus following the law, this could indeed be a bad week for conservatives. On the other hand, if you believe conservatism means following the clear intent of law, especially the US Constitution, this week is a big win!

[Right Cal Gal]

I found it telling that in one of Alito's answers, he couched his following and reliance on stare decisis with, to paraphrase, the idea that you don't KNOW what new arguments will be made in support of a matter before the Court.

I find it telling that Democrats are all over the idea that stare decisis must be followed, and yet they never remember the most glaring injustice of it: Plessy v. Ferguson. The Supreme Court had to say in essence in Brown (1954) that Plessy was wrong, flat wrong, and they were not obliged to use Plessy as precedent.

I'm of the mind that while the 4th Amendment guarantees us privacy in our persons and homes via the reasonable search provision, I cannot fathom how the Constitution protects the right to abortion. Plus the fact that the country is now turning away from this "unrestricted abortion" notion being pushed by the hard liberals. Even in San Francisco, there is a serious ad campaign on BART Trains stating that we have gone too far in allowing abortion. And even the Birkenstock Berkeley Beanheads haven't defaced the signs (which is saying something),

[Taliesan]

The writer objects on tactical grounds what she should be condemning on moral grounds, and argues her self into the conclusion that her own view of conservatives is refuted by all the empirical evidence she holds -- then fails to notice the force of her own logic.

The typical articulate incoherence one expects from the liberal mind. 2+2=5, in polysyllables.

[kpp_kpp]

"These include pro-choice decisions that affirmed and applied Roe v. Wade, as well as cases favoring plaintiffs bringing discrimination suits, cases that ruled in favor of criminal defendants, or a case that expanded a women's rights to seek political asylum on the basis of gender. These are just not the results you would expect to see if he were a conservative ideologue."

sounds more like she doesn't understand conservatives.

she got a glimpse of one working with Alito obviously, liked what she saw, yet still refuses to see the light.

a conservative ideologue does not include oppressing others.

[CDHart]

" Me thinks she is too smart to be a real liberal."

Maybe she's young yet -- this may be an opportunity for her to see what her liberal friends are really like.

Carolyn

[John O]

This is not going to be a consistent conservative vote on the court. You have only yourselves to blame for it, but you'll find a way to blame someone else.

you have to recognize that while serving on a lower court the Judge had to respect the prior opinions of the Supreme Court whether he considered them wrong or not. While on the Surpreme Court he will no longer be bound by that. I still expect him to want to change things back to where they should be.

Now we just continue praying that the liberal justices will be removed from the court.

[XJarhead]

All those who clamored on FR for an Alito may want to read this real carefully. This is not going to be a consistent conservative vote on the court. You have only yourselves to blame for it, but you'll find a way to blame someone else.

I didn't want a "consistent conservative" on the court. I wanted a consistent judicial conservative on the Court who would interpret the law as written, not as he thinks it should be. Whether that gives a "liberal" or "conservative" result is not something about which a judge should care. Justice Scalia found flag burning to be protected speech. I didn't agree with the result, and he personally hated that result, but I was satisfied because he didn't let his personal views affect his legal analysis.

[redgolum]

What's scary is that if she is right, Bush has wasted a Supreme Court appointment on someone who will not work to change the disaster that is Supreme Court jurisprudence.

Great point.