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Monday, January 09, 2006 

Hearing Aftermath

I've noticed some interesting commentary concerning the Alito hearings and nomination today. First, Hugh Hewitt had law professor Erwin Chemerinsky on his radio show and got him to admit that Kennedy lied about Alito's record concerning discrimination.
HH: And so Erwin, I come back to you...You would also agree, though, that Ted Kennedy was just flat out wrong today.?

EC: I agree he way overstated...

HH: Wait, wait. That's not the same. Was he wrong?

EC: He was wrong. I'm not denying that.
Chemerinsky is one of the Democrats' witnesses testifying against Alito too. Don't expect an apology from Kennedy either.

Power Line quotes former Democratic governor of New Jersey Brendan Byrne as he endorses Alito...
I write to express my support for the nomination of Sam Alito to become an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Judge Alito is from New Jersey, so I have known him and his family for decades. I truly believe that he is by far the best we are going to get from this president and that it would be a grave mistake to turn him down. Those of us who would support a more liberal candidate also lost an election in 2004 and are obliged to think in that context. However, I truly believe that Sam Alito is not an ideologue but has a superb mind and would make a fine addition to the court.
Christine Todd Whitman's strong endorsement of Alito is pretty powerful too. She is as moderate as a Republican can get. She is also retired, so she's got no political reason to support Alito like this. She's doing it because she thinks it's right.

If you are looking for a more traditional live blog of the hearings, SCOTUS has a very detailed one. Part 1 and part 2.

I wouldn't mind hearing Alito say something like, "I am very much morally opposed to Abortion. Senator Kennedy, as a fellow Catholic I am sure you can agree with me on this?"

It won't happen but it would be priceless. I wonder what was going threw the other senator's heads as Brownback and the guy from OK talked about Abortion being simply murder and how 90% of babies testing for downsyndrome are aborted.

Its late now but I intend to start reading your blog often, not sure whether or not it could be catorgorized as part of the "Catholic Blogsphere" that I tend to dwell in.

I really think that this shouldn't be a debate about abortion itself. It should be a debate about what issues like abortion have done to the federal judiciary. Graham made this point very well. I think that the best line of the day was his, where he referred to "no judge should make a statement that a legal argument is totally off limits in his court, a citizen has a right to make that case," or something to that effect. The debate on abortion should be argued and decided by the people of this country, not lawyers and justices.

I went to Catholic high school. Does that count?

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