Dark Bilious Vapors

"Today, a group of prominent law professors released a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Ranking Member Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) signed by over 500 law professors in opposition to the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito to the Supreme Court. Law professors from across the country have joined together to urge the Senate to reject Alito's nomination.

"The Supreme Court is the guardian of our rights and freedoms," the letter reads. "For decades to come, Judge Alito's one vote could work significant changes in the law affecting these rights and freedoms." From environmental protection to privacy to executive power, the letter outlines the case against Alito's nomination to the high court. "Based on his 15-year record on the bench, we believe that Judge Alito would reshape the law in ways that make our country less equal and less free," concludes the letter.

At a press conference this morning at the National Press Club, Peter Shane, professor of law at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law and an expert on executive power, raised serious concerns about Alito's record on presidential power. "He is resolutely deferential to assertions of executive authority, while going out of his way to invent imaginary limitations on Congress's legislative powers," Professor Shane said. "In the hands of the current administration, it is this same line of thinking that has spawned unprecedented claims of executive privilege, preposterous claims of authority to engage in torture, unprecedented claims to hold U.S. citizens indefinitely as enemy combatants, and now an apparent pattern of flagrant and unapologetic violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."

Professor Reynaldo Valencia of St. Mary's University School of Law spoke of Alito's disturbing record on civil rights. "Each new troubling revelation regarding Judge Alito's views on affirmative action, voting rights and immigrant rights demonstrates that the confirmation of Judge Alito would not serve the interests of Latinos," said Professor Valencia.

Professors Shane and Valencia were joined by Professor David Kairys of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and Professor Holly Maguigan of New York University School of Law. Professor Maguigan, co-president of the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT) which represents more than 900 law professors around the country, also announced that SALT's board of directors voted unanimously to oppose Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court."

Karen on 01.05.06 @ 11:35 AM CST