Memo exposes anti-democratic agenda of US Supreme Court nominee

[OKthatsIT]

Memo exposes anti-democratic agenda of US Supreme Court nominee
By John Andrews and Barry Grey
World Socialist
17 November 2005

A 1985 job application submitted by Samuel Alito, then seeking a promotion within the Reagan administration, demonstrates that President Bush’s nominee to the Supreme Court is a life-long political reactionary committed to dismantling the social and legal gains achieved in the United States during the decades following World War II.

Alito’s two-page description of his political development and legal views must serve as a stark warning to the American people on the breadth and depth of the next stage of the US ruling elite’s attack on democratic rights.

Monday’s release of the application in the right-wing Washington Times was likely intended to strengthen support for Alito among religious fundamentalists and other political reactionaries within the Republican Party base. The exposure of his hostility to high court precedents protecting civil and voting rights for blacks and other minorities, limiting police abuse and governmental invasions of privacy, and defending the secular foundations of the US Constitution has placed in sharp relief the cowardice and complicity of Senate Democrats, who have shown no willingness to seriously oppose Alito’s elevation to the high court. Alito’s securing of lifetime tenure on the Court, replacing the “swing” vote of retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, will dramatically shift the Court further to the right.

The 1985 document, prepared when Alito, then 35, was seeking a promotion to deputy assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese, outlined Alito’s political and judicial agenda, revealing his adherence to the full panoply of anti-democratic policies long pursued by the most right-wing sections of the US ruling elite.

(The document can be accessed at:
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/alito/111585stmnt.html)

Alito began by declaring: “I am and always have been a conservative and an adherent to the same philosophical views that I believe are central to this Administration.” Those views were expressed in a brutal attack on social welfare programs, massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, and government-backed union-busting, beginning with Reagan’s smashing of the PATCO air traffic controllers union in 1981. These policies inaugurated the plundering of the national economy to vastly increase the wealth of the financial aristocracy at the expense of the broad mass of working people, resulting in a staggering increase in social inequality that has continued ever since.

Using legalistic euphemisms employed by the right wing, Alito wrote that he believed “very strongly in limited government, federalism, free enterprise, the supremacy of the elected branches of government, the need for a strong defense and effective law enforcement, and the legitimacy of a government role in protecting traditional values.”

more...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/nov2005/alit-n17.shtml

[kurth]

1. "Well, I was just saying stuff - I was applying for a job..."

"...Like I'm saying stuff now - cuz I'm applying for a job."

[jedicord]

2. Just curious - DID he get the job? n/t

[Supersedeas]

4. Yes, I believe he did.

[ninkasi]

3. I really hope our Dems go all out to oppose this guy

He sounds as bad as Scalia, and now I see why his nickname is so appropriate. We do NOT need any more of our rights taken away by this disaster of an administration. Having him on the Supreme Court will be the final nail in the coffin of what once was America.