NY Times on Alito

The NY Times has an hysterical editorial about Alito today that includes the following statement:

Judge Samuel Alito Jr.'s insistence that the Constitution does not protect abortion rights is not the only alarming aspect of a newly released memo he wrote in 1985. That statement strongly suggests that Judge Alito is far outside the legal mainstream . . .

That is just ridiculous. Many pro-choice people like myself find Roe v. Wade difficult to defend as a matter of constitutional law. For example --

Laurence Tribe — Harvard Law School. Lawyer for Al Gore in 2000.

“One of the most curious things about Roe is that, behind its own verbal smokescreen, the substantive judgment on which it rests is nowhere to be found.”

“The Supreme Court, 1972 Term—Foreword: Toward a Model of Roles in the Due Process of Life and Law,” 87 Harvard Law Review 1, 7 (1973).

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Ruth Bader Ginsburg — Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

“Roe, I believe, would have been more acceptable as a judicial decision if it had not gone beyond a ruling on the extreme statute before the court. … Heavy-handed judicial intervention was difficult to justify and appears to have provoked, not resolved, conflict.”

North Carolina Law Review, 1985

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Edward Lazarus — Former clerk to Harry Blackmun.

. . . .

“[A]s a matter of constitutional interpretation, even most liberal jurisprudes — if you administer truth serum — will tell you it is basically indefensible.”

“Liberals, Don’t Make Her an Icon” Washington Post July 10, 2003.

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There may be good reasons to oppose Alito, but the NY Times editorial board offers only hyperbole.