In some respects, I don’t care that Alito will

be the next Justice, nor that he’ll replace a more moderate Sandra Day O’Connor. I am a little creeped out by 8 Catholics

ruling like a College of Cardinals.

I’m absolutely certain that I will live long enough to hear more than one Radical Righter

bray against the treachery of Alito or Roberts. It is inevitable that they will be disappointed — they always have been.

I also

believe in the Law of Unintended Consequences and the subtle shifting of the balance of power in our three-pronged government. The Loony

Right believes they are at the gates of heaven: they control the Legislature and the Presidency and are one Justice away from a

generational lock on the Supreme Court — plus the corporate grip on media and the tax-free businesses of mega-churches. With a rubber-

stamp Congress and Court, and the support of the church, this or the next conservative President will be more powerful than any president

since Roosevelt — and it’s all about destroying the New Deal.

But the Radical Right is losing its hold. The deception and

corruption become more obvious every day. The intolerance does, too. Those with power believe their judgements and pronouncements are

absolute and final. People are starting to fear their government — ironically, that’s one of the tenets of the Radical Right: hatred of

the Beast. They have become the Beast. They are repulsing those who are not ideologically pure.

America is stronger than the

momentary passions of any group, no matter how powerful they think they are — as liberals who supported personal freedom in the Sixties

well know. This president will leave office — thank god — thinking he was the greatest president ever. Power will shift — as it must

— and the pendulum will swing. The overall trajectory of America is not in the direction of more power for the rich and for business. We

are not really AmeriCo. mjh

JURIST – Forum: Legal Technicalities: Weighing the Alito Nomination by David Kairys

Like

the rest of us, [Alito’s] for a clean environment and corporate responsibility, but he interprets environmental laws so it’s near

impossible to make out a case against a polluter, and anti-trust laws so it’s near impossible to make out a case of price fixing.

He tells us about the importance of privacy and of limits on the government’s power to intrude on individuals, which are the essence of

liberty. But he accepts farfetched rationales to justify most any intrusion – even the unauthorized strip search of a 10-year-old girl

and the unauthorized holding of a farmer at gunpoint and ransacking of his home.

He’s for balance among the three branches

government, but he’s taken every opportunity to strip Congress of the basic power to protect and serve the public. …

In many

such decisions, he was a lone dissenter, and majorities on his own court, including then-judge and now Secretary of Homeland Security

Michael Chertoff, often expressed unusual displeasure with his dubious manipulations of rules and evidence. …

He has a deep

allegiance to government, to corporations, and to the wealthy and elite – so deep that there is no way to know what, if any, limits he

might find acceptable.

Alito’s writings yearn for undiluted executive power and immunity of executive officials from all

legal claims – immunity from the rule of law. At the confirmation hearings, he wouldn’t accept any concrete limits on

presidential power, even in general terms. …

But he’s very willing – eager – to limit the powers of Congress when they are used

to protect the safety, health, jobs, environment or wellbeing of Americans throughout the country.

Executive and legislative power

matter. …

Alito believes in freedom, but it’s the freedom of the most powerful and wealthiest among us and of the government to

do as they please, with little or no concern for the effect on most Americans or the nation as a whole.

David Kairys is a

law professor at Temple University who has litigated leading civil rights cases.