Alito

by Mollie Hemingway

Fiat justicia, ruat caelum. Let justice be done, though the heavens fall. (6)

Eisenhower made 5 appointments to the Supreme Court in the 1950s. He called Earl Warren and William Brennan the two biggest mistakes of his presidency. (15)

The Warren court legislated from the bench, imposing a progressive program. They banned prayer in schools, expanded the rights of the criminally accused, and eliminated sexual conduct regulations. Earl Warren was followed by Warren Burger, who presided over Roe v. Wade.

This blew my mind re: the Dobbs leak. Dobbs was the decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade. An early internal version of the decision was leaked to Politico. The decision would not be valid until it was made official, which could take time, and in the meantime there were serious threats to some of the justices’ lives. The dissenters were asked to finish writing their dissents more quickly, so the decision could be released and take some of that pressure off. However, they seemed to drag their feet – almost as if they were allowing time for someone to assassinate one of their more conservative colleagues so that the decision would not be given. When they did submit their dissent, it included a reference to a case that was from that session, which meant the Dobbs decision had to wait even longer. (I don’t really know the details of that part, but it’s in the book.) They gave potention assassins as much time as possible. There was one who was arrested after traveling to Kavanaugh’s house with a Glock pistol, zip ties, tactical knife, pepper spray, hammer, duct tape, etc. (This was Sophie Roske, then known as Nicholas John Roske.) (27ff)

Alito was born April 1, 1950. All 4 grandparents immigrated from Italy. He was in 8th grade when JFK was shot. He drew a low draft number for Vietnam, so he joined ROTC at Princeton, but riots and a molotov cocktail ended the ROTC program there (41). He went to Yale Law School in 1972; Bill and Hillary Clinton were there at the same time. So was Clarence Thomas.

Some appointment history:

• Nixon:
  • Rehnquist (conservative, chief justice)
  • Powell
  • Blackmun
  • Burger
• Ford:
  • Stevens (drifted left, became a judicial activist)
• Reagan:
  • O’Connor (“a cookie for you, a cookie for you, …”, 1981)
  • Scalia (1986)
  • Kennedy (1987)
• Bush 1
  • Thomas
  • Souter (“worst mistake of his presidency,” wrote the Casey decision)
• Clinton
  • Breyer
  • RBG
• Bush 2
  • Alito
  • Roberts
• Obama
  • Sotomayor (2009)
  • Kagan (2010)
• Trump
  • Gorsuch
  • Kavanaugh
  • Barrett
• Biden
  • Jackson

Both Rehnquist and O’Connor wanted to retire, but Rehnquist held off – “we don’t need two vacancies.” (66)

After the 2000 election, a “consortium of newspapers” analyzed Florida ballots and determined Bush really did win. (68)

Reagan promised to put a woman on the court (O’Connor). Really no different from Biden w/ Jackson. George W. Bush wanted to nominate the first hispanic justice.

Miguel Estrada was a conservative, hispanic justice. He must be good, because “Senate Democrats conducted the first filibuster in history against an Appeals Court nomination.” They didn’t want him anywhere close to the Supreme Court; filibustered him twice. (71)

“Laura Bush, on a visit to South Africa [July 2005] had publicly called on her husband to nominate a woman” to fill O’Connor’s seat. (80) Bush emphasized non-white and female picks “for judges and key cabinet positions.” (81)

Democrats fought to block/retard the careers of women and minorities who were conservative, so they couldn’t develop into Supreme Court candidates. (82)

Harriet Miers withdrew herself as a Supreme Court nominee. So Bush nominated Alito, who had been Miers’ top pick for the role anyway, and she graciously supported him. (86)

During his nomination hearings, Alito had a painful dental abscess. He had a root canal right after the hearings. (94) I wonder which was worse.

When Gorsuch was talkative, he received censure from the media. When Jackson was talkative, she received praise from the media. (135)

“The court’s legitimacy as an institution ought to be a byproduct of its reasoned decision making and its imperviousness to political influence.” –Ed Wheelan (145)

Judicial victories with this current court include:

• ending Roe
• ending racial bias in college admissions
• ending “Chevron deference” (letting unelected bureaucrats interpret laws)
• deciding that promoting gender ideology at public schools violates parental religious rights