Judging Alito

I watched almost every minute of the Alito hearings (thank goodness for my ability to multi-task). I was thoroughly unimpressed by the preening senators, and hardly disagree with Biden's suggestion that committee hearings be effectively scrapped. But since they're all we have at this point ...

Judge Alito's responses were worrying. He seems incredibly favorable toward a (nearly all-) powerful executive branch. His lack of commitment to the settled nature of the Griswold cases was palpable (even as Judge Roberts' was rather more evident). He refused to answer questions about his views on the extent to which Congress can utilize its Commerce Clause power. His stated judicial philosophy ("I think we should look to the text of the Constitution, and we should look to the meaning that someone would have taken from the text of the Constitution at the time of its adoption") aligns him closely with Justices Scalia and Thomas and less with those justices who look pragmatically at the implications of their decisions on today's world.

Were I a senator, I would not find myself able to vote in support of Judge Alito's nomination. However, I find no "extraordinary circumstances" in his record that would warrant a filibuster, and would/will not support one. I hope that the Alito opponents do not take the country down that road.

More than anything, Alito's nomination should be used as a clarion call to the centrist and liberal grassroots of America. If we want justices less in the vein of Scalia and Thomas, we must elect enough senators who feel similarly. Remember that in November.

[Update: Just to show you how funny we centrists can be, Alan Stewart Carl over at Maverick Views comes down just to the opposite of me on this one, with some fine arguments in that direction. - 7:25 p.m.]