AnalPhilosopher

1. I’m delighted. I supported President Bush’s choice of Harriet Miers and thought she was treated unfairly by conservatives, but I’m just as happy, if not happier, with Samuel Alito. By all indications, he will keep his personal values from influencing his decisions on the Supreme Court. He will show proper deference to the text of the Constitution and to the various statutes that he interprets. He is properly aghast at the idea that foreign law should play any role in interpreting our Constitution. Will he vote to overrule Roe v. Wade? I don’t know. I hope he does, but there are other issues with which I’m concerned. I’m not a one-issue voter. I look forward to next year’s batch of Supreme Court rulings, so we can see what sort of justice we have.

2. There’s something philosophically unedifying about the confirmation process. Perhaps it’s because there are no recognized standards that can provide the basis for rational persuasion. A senator can vote against a nominee simply because he or she doesn’t like the nominee’s values. How many times did you hear it said, during the Senate hearings, that Justice Alito would do this or that on the Court? Senator Kennedy said that Justice Alito would destroy the “progress” that’s been made in various areas of the law. People opposed the judge simply because they didn’t share his values or his approach to judging. Why are those even relevant? Shouldn’t the inquiry be into the nominee’s credentials, experience, temperament, and intellect? By this standard, Judge Alito was eminently qualified. He will make a magnificent Supreme Court justice. Mark my words.

3. There will be a ferocious battle over the next Supreme Court nominee, especially if the retiring justice is John Paul Stevens or Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Justices Souter and Breyer, given their age and apparent health, should be on the Court for a long time.) If my goal were to overrule Roe v. Wade, I would not feel good—yet. Almost certainly, Justices Souter, Breyer, Ginsburg, Stevens, and Kennedy will vote against overruling. Replace one of them with another Judge Alito, however, and Roe is gone. President Bush has three more years in office. Nobody knows what the 2008 presidential election will bring. If a Republican is elected and the Senate remains in Republican hands, Roe will be overruled. I expect President Bush to get at least one more nomination. Whether he has a congenial Senate depends on how things go this fall. If you thought the Left was energized by the Alito nomination, you’ve got another thing coming. It’ll be all-out war if Justice Stevens or Justice Ginsburg retires during the next three years.

4. Leftists who are outraged or disappointed by Judge Alito’s ascension to the Supreme Court have nobody but themselves to blame. You have to win a presidential election to nominate justices. Leftists have become so extreme in their choices for president, and so alienated from the American people, that they’ve locked themselves out of power. John Kerry? A liberal from Massachusetts? It’s laughable. Study history. It’s a necessary condition for a Democrat to be elected president that he or she be from the South. It’s not a sufficient condition, as the defeats of Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Al Gore in 2000 show, but it does appear to be a necessary condition. Doesn’t it behoove Democrats to use this knowledge? But they haven’t and, by all indications, won’t. They’d rather lose and whine than choose nominees to the Supreme Court. They’d rather obstruct than govern. Or so it appears from their behavior. If Democrats nominate either Kerry (again) or Hillary Clinton, they will be setting themselves up for another defeat. The first thing Democrats must do to regain power is sever relations with the Bush-haters and America-haters at places like Democratic Underground and Daily Kos. These fanatics are destroying the party’s chance of victory.

5. I hope President Bush puts Justice Alito and his wife in the box with Laura this evening. It would be a fitting tribute.