Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to read much of the news coming out of the Alito hearings. I did hear where Kennedy attempted to lecture on morals. I don't even think the pot calling the kettle black euphamism is strong enough for that. When you leave a woman to drown just to save your political career, you lose all rights to speak to anyone about morals.

What I have heard, though, is this. The Democrats are beginning to sound like a one-trick pony.

"Alito will do away with abortion."
"What's going to happen to abortion under Alito?"
"How will Alito vote on abortion cases?"
"Alito is going to take away womens' rights."

Are the Democrats being alamrists? Are they just trying to keep from getting another Conservative on the bench? Are they trying to push their agenda? Let's take a look at the facts. Most of the historical abortion cases that I have heard of have been decided 6 - 3. With the death of Chief Justice Rhenquest and the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice, nothing changes. We lost a consistantly constitional vote and gained another. Even if Judge Alito were confirmed and voted consistantly conservative on every issue, it would only bring most abortion votes to a 5-4 decision. Now, to be fair, there are some issues that were voted 5-4 that would now change. And there are some that we are completly unsure about such as upholding the partial birth abortion ban. But is that enough to stop Alito? Is that even why we are here?

The purpose of the Senate confirmation hearings, according to the Constitution, is simply to provide advice and consent to the President. It doesn't say that he has to follow their advice, or that their consent is completly necessary for a judge to be confirmed. Only that they provide it to the President. And historically, the Senate confirmation hearings have not been used as a formum for a partisan witch-hunt. This practice started in earnest with Justice Clarance Thomas. If you want proof of how the confirmation hearings should be conducted, take a look at Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I don't agree with anything that she does politically and neither do most of the Conservatives who confirmed her. Yet she received 99% of the vote during her hearings. This is because instead of asking her how she was going to vote on certain issues, the Senators at that time stuck what they were supposed to cover. Does she know the law? Is she an honest person? Can she judge impartially? How highly is she rated by her peers? Covering the confirmation hearings with all the propaganda about how a judge is going to vote or what his politics are based on is simply a waste of our time and money. And even more so when a windbag like Kennedy takes time to bluster and lecture.

And if the Senators do their job correctly and Alito is confirmed (which is the only logical outcome at this time), what then? Will abortion be overturned? Not likely. The first thing that you have to keep in mind is that these justices can't just get into office and start overturning any law that doesn't suit them. Someone would first have to bring forth a case challenging the constitutionality of Roe v. Wade. And in this case, it would probably have to be something that has not yet been tried. Most tactics (for lack of a better word) that have already been ruled on are either not going to be accepted by the court for a second look or ruled on in the same way. However, I'm certain that there are enough bright lawyers out there looking to make a name for themselves that someone can find a novel approach to this issue. So, assuming that Alito gets nominated, some hotshot young lawyer finds a new way to say Roe v. Wade is unconstitutional and manages to get heard, AND one of the historical "swing vote" judges decides that he agrees with the argument AND both Roberts and Alito agree with the argument....Roe v. Wade could potentially be overturned. Woe and betide us! Women will have to move back into caves! All their human rights will be taken away! They'll become a subclass of people and even lose their right to vote!

Or maybe not. You see, all Roe v. Wade has ever done is move the decisions about abortion to a federal level and take it out of the hands of the states. And with this, out of the hands of voters. Which is EXACTLY where abortion proponents want it. They're terrified of letting the people speak on this issue, so they have hidden behind the judicial nonsense perpetrated by the original Roe ruling. Whether or not you believe in abortion, you should be completly appalled at the way this has been handled. To allow a judge to add (or take away) rights that do not appear in the Constitution allows for the complete bypass of our entire system of checks and balances. The liberals have been up in arms lately over President Bush's alleged "power grab" with the entire wiretap story. Yet they refuse to acknowledge the same type of situation when it happens with our court system.

The nomination of Samuel Alito to our highest court can be used for two things. It can be used by the partisan hacks to divide our great country further in their effort to dismantle the constitution through judicial activism or it can be used to get us back on track. As voters, the choice is ours. Contact your senator and let him know how you feel on this and every issue that means something to you. And if they don't listen, then send them a clear message at election time.

Posted by: Drew at 02:23 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 990 words, total size 6 kb.