01-07-06,9:41am
The National Lawyers Guild reiterated its opposition to Judge Samuel Alito’s nomination to the Supreme Court today and said that the ABA decision declaring Alito “qualified” for the position did not address the most significant questions before the Senate.
Professor David Kairys, speaking on behalf of the Guild, said that, “The ABA decision addresses only a threshold issue of legal qualifications. The Constitution does not provide merely for a Committee on Credentials, it requires that the Senate, a political body, approve the candidate’s nomination. The Senate has to look at Judge Alito’s values and ask how he would decide crucial constitutional questions. When you look at those issues, it is clear that Judge Alito is not the right person for the Supreme Court.” Professor Kairys teaches constitutional law at Temple Law School in Philadelphia.
The Lawyers Guild said that Judge Alito’s previous judicial decisions and published statements demonstrate that his presence on the Supreme Court will not benefit ordinary Americans. With respect to personal liberty, Alito takes an extremely narrow view of what the Constitution protects, as reflected in his opinion sanctioning the strip search without a warrant of a ten-year old girl. With respect to religious freedom, he has not insisted upon the separation of church and state, as required by the First Amendment. With respect to the regulation of dangerous industries, he ruled that Congress does not have the authority to make the possession of machine guns illegal. With respect to labor, he ruled that despite a Congressional statute authorizing it, state workers had no ability to sue for unpaid sick leave. With respect to the environment, he made it more difficult to sue polluters under the Clean Water Act. With respect to employment discrimination, Alito favors rules that make it more difficult for women and minorities to sue. With respect to corporate power, he has ruled against anti-trust remedies. With respect to one person – one vote, Alito has said that he disagrees with Reynolds v. Sims, a leading case establishing this principle.
Michael Avery, President of the Guild, declared, “We are particularly concerned that Samuel Alito will not impose necessary limits on presidential power and insist upon the checks and balances required by the Constitution. His long membership in the Federalist Society and his writings demonstrate that he believes in the Imperial Presidency, which is unfortunately what George W. Bush has been trying to create.” Avery noted that, “Appointing such a person to the Supreme Court is a terrible risk at a time when the President is asserting an unprecedented ability to act outside the Constitution and contrary to the wishes of the other branches, as demonstrated by the illegal electronic surveillance he has admitted authorizing.” The Guild noted that, as documented by the Alliance for Justice, Alito has been extraordinarily deferential to the exercise of power by the executive branch and government officials.
Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director of the Guild, stated that, “On this occasion the Guild agrees with the judgment of the National Association of Manufacturers, that Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court will be good for big business. But we think it is more important to ask what will be good for ordinary Americans and the country as a whole.”
Founded in 1937 as the first racially integrated national bar association, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States, with more than 200 chapters. The Guild has a long history of challenging government overreaching and helped expose illegal FBI and CIA surveillance, infiltration and disruption tactics (COINTELPRO) that the U.S. Senate “Church Commission” hearings detailed in 1975-76 and which led to enactment of the Freedom of Information Act and other specific limitations on federal investigative power.
CONTACT: Michael Avery, NLG President, 617-335-5023 David Kairys, 215-204-8959 Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, 212-679-5100, x 11
