Eminent Domain

That's rhetorical. Ed Whelan at Bench Memos has a series of posts concerning Senator Schumer's attack of Judge Alito's confirmation questionnaire. Schumer claims that Alito is trying to hide his involvement in the Thornburgh case (an abortion case). That case was not in the list of cases that Alito worked on during his time at the solicitor general's office. Why? He wasn't assigned to the case, and he worked on it in a peripheral manner. He didn't even sign the memo. Being part of an office or a firm means that you help your coworkers when you can. That's what Judge Alito was doing, offering assistance on part of the case.

A New York Sun article quotes Judge Alito's then-boss, former Solicitor General Charles Fried concerning this issue...

"I have never head of anyone who worked in the solicitor general's office who would list all the cases where they wrote memos," Mr. Fried said. "There are hundreds of these. It's just absurd. It's one of these typical cases, and I'm afraid Senator Schumer is guilty of this, that if you can't get someone on the merits, you bring up some phony lack of candor argument. He should be ashamed of himself, but he is shameless. And you can quote me on that."

That's beautiful. It brought a smile to my face. Fried is right. They can't attack Judge Alito on the merits, so they are trying to find ANYTHING that they can use against him. Every week, they throw something new at him to see if it sticks. There is still a month to go, but I am sure that Alito will make it through until the confirmation hearings without damage.