The more we get to know Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, said Derrick Z. Jackson in The Boston Globe, the less there is to like. President Bush's choice to fill Sandra Day O'Connor's crucial swing seat on the court is not only on record proclaiming his disdain for Roe v. Wade. He's also shown a frightening contempt for minorities, women, and civil rights. Alito, it was revealed last week, once belonged to the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a reactionary group of white males that called the admission of women to that university an unfortunate 'œfad' and groused that 'œsubpar' minorities were being admitted to their fine alma mater. In a 1985 application for a promotion within the Reagan administration, Alito trumpeted his belief that 'œracial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed,' and said he'd gotten interested in constitutional law because of his 'œdisagreement with Warren Court decisions.' The Warren Court, of course, was the Supreme Court that banned segregated schools, and expanded civil rights for millions of Americans. Is there a pattern emerging here?
'œThe smear is on,' said The San Diego Union-Tribune in an editorial. Critics 'œon the partisan left' are trying to paint Alito as a bigoted extremist, and it now appears that 'œJanuary's confirmation hearings will be another bitter, nasty chapter in American politics.' In attack ads on TV, left-wing activist groups are now distorting Alito's nuanced judicial opinions, portraying him as a cartoonish, conservative ideologue. Take the case of Doe v. Groody, in which police strip-searched a mother and her 10-year-old daughter while looking for a suspected drug dealer in an apartment. Alito supported the search for a simple reason: The warrant authorized a search of everyone in the apartment. Dealers, the police said, often ask friends or even children to conceal their stashes. Alito's opinion was 'œnarrow, technical,' and 'œthoughtful'—and not extreme in the least.
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