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Alito on Privacy and Gay Rights

By Jeralyn, Section Sam Alito
Posted on Wed Nov 02, 2005 at 10:58:46 AM EST
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The Boston Globe is touting a college paper by Judge Alito suggesting he supported privacy and gay rights back then. Not exactly.

He was the advisor on the paper for a task force of 16 students who researched these issues and arrived at their, not his, recommendations. Alito wrote the introduction describing their recommendations.

A classmate, Jeffrey G. Weil, said yesterday that Alito, one of the top seniors in his class, had been selected to advise juniors writing the report, coaching them through the research and then writing an introduction explaining their recommendations.

His role was mostly advisory, said Weil, who wrote the section of the report dealing with gay rights but who said he could not remember whether Alito personally agreed with the recommendations.

As one Harvard professor now says:

Richard H. Fallon, a professor at Harvard Law School, said that it would be a mistake to read too much into ''little bits of evidence like this" and that even if Alito held socially liberal views on gay rights, it would not necessarily mean that he would vote in favor of gay marriage or any other issue.

''From the fact that someone thinks legislators ought to forbid discrimination," he said, ''it does not follow that the person would necessarily think that the Supreme Court of the United States ought to hold that the Constitution forbids discrimination against gays."

Value of the Globe article in terms of clues to Judge Alito's views in my opinion: None

Update: Campus Progress has the full report (pdf).

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    • Alito on Privacy and Gay Rights | 3 comments (3 topical)
    Re: Alito on Privacy and Gay Rights (none / 0) (#1)
    by ras on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:40 PM EST
    TL, Would you, today, recommend that the D's filibuster Sam Alito? If the worst you can accuse him of is enforcing the law as written, or helping some college kids write a paper, then maybe it's a moot point, and Alito is gonna be confirmed with just pro-forma opposition. But I'd be curious as to your stated opinion: would you, at this point, favor a fb? Or do you think Alito in hearings might yet convince you he'll make a good Justice?

    Re: Alito on Privacy and Gay Rights (none / 0) (#2)
    by roy on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:40 PM EST
    He's only been a nominee for a few days; anybody who's made up their mind on him is screwy in my book.

    Re: Alito on Privacy and Gay Rights (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:05:41 PM EST
    Ras - If judges only intrepreted the law as written...and never looked at the law in comparison with their reading of the constitution or the general views of society...our country would be a far more segregated place. I have not even come close to forming an opinion on Alito, though I am cautious, given the number of times his opinions have been overturned by a slightly conservative court.

    Alito on Privacy and Gay Rights | 3 comments (3 topical)