12 Days of Justice
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There are many reasons to be wary of the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.


Over the next 12 days the Anti-Alito Brigade will be bringing you many of those reasons, and also some actions that you might consider to help stop this horrible nomination.


The main intention of this nomination is to try and tip the balance of power away from the legislative branch and towards the President.


Alito is an activist judge that will legislate from the bench on many of the issues that all progressives hold dear to their heart.


X-posted at dKos, My Left Wing, Booman Tribune , My Left Nutmeg, Political Cortex
And also Front Paged or posted by Cedwyn at: Dembloggers, ePluribus Media,   MyDD, and TPM Cafe reader Blogs as well as by shermanesqe at Street Prophets and C&J

There's more below the fold, so plug your nose and dumpster dive into the rest of this post with me!

Our intention is that everyone across the Left Blogosphere participates in this any way that they can. Write a few letters, send Emails, send Faxes, and make some phonecalls to your Senators and Reps. (I know Reps don't vote on this, BUT they can provide more pressure on this issue to those that do vote on Alito! Besides, it is fun to piss them off... lol)


Taken from Tampopo's BooTrib diary:

December 12, 2005


You should be very wary of Judge Samuel Alito. Perhaps afraid is more accurate.


Judge Samuel Alito does not respect the primary role of the Legislative branch of our government. Therefore, he should not be considered acceptable to any member of Congress, particularly true Conservatives, regardless of his opinions on other matters held dear.


Judge Alito is a threat to your role in the structure of our government. You practice the art of politicking, balancing constituents' concerns and needs with those of our society as a whole. Legislation is challenged in court, as it should be when the interpretation of a law is in question. Judge Alito's record suggests he is not a "strict constructionist" of the Constitution.


Norm Ornstein, of the prestigious American Enterprise Institute, has recognized the danger Judge Alito represents. In his article, "Judge Alito Doesn't Show Congress Enough Deference," Ornstein states:

  [Supreme Court Justice John] Roberts respects Congress and its constitutional primacy; Alito shows serious signs that he does not...

  ...Roberts is a very conservative guy, and a strict constructionist -- one who means it. He understands that Congress is the branch the framers set up in Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution. It is not coincidence that Article 1 is twice as long as Article II, which created the executive branch, and almost four times as long as Article III, which established the judiciary. Judges should bend over doubly and triply backward before overturning a Congressional statute, especially if it is clear that Congress acted carefully and deliberatively...


The court case that has Mr. Ornstein turning such a critical eye on Judge Alito is from 1996, "United States v Rybar." This case involved a challenge to Congress's right to regulate the possession or transfer of machine guns.


From Mr. Ornstein,

  Congress had passed the law in a reasonable and deliberate fashion. A genuine practitioner of judicial restraint would have allowed them a wide enough berth to do so. Alito's colleagues did just that. But Alito used his own logic to call for its overturn, arguing that the possession of machine guns by private individuals had no economic activity associated with it, and that no real evidence existed that private possession of guns increased crime in a way that affected commerce -- and thus Congress had no right to regulate it. That kind of judicial reasoning often is referred to as reflecting the "Constitution in Exile."

  Whatever it is, it's not judicial restraint.


In response to Alito's opinion, the majority said, "Nothing in Lopez (an earlier Supreme Court case) requires either Congress or the Executive to play Show and Tell with the federal courts at the peril of invalidation of a Congressional statute."


Mr. Ornstein's final sentence is a caution to you,

  Whatever else it does with Judge Alito at the confirmation hearings, the Senate needs to hold his feet to the fire on this larger issue of deference to the legislative branch.


Don't let Judge Alito's opinions on single issues distract you from the danger he presents to our nation's Constitutional foundation. Reject his nomination and encourage your colleagues to do the same.


Some suggested contacts & petitions:


Your senators


The Judiciary Committee


Your representatives


Campus Progress "Stop Alito's America"


PFAW "Save the Court"


Planned Parenthood Anti-Alito Petition


Naral Anti-Alito Petition


Plan B Petition


Sending a FAX via the Web (For those of us that don't have a fax machine at home.)


Feel free to lift the image here or any of the others over at Booman Tribune, and feel free to copy and paste any and all of the information you will see put up over the next couple of weeks into Blogs and letters as we hold Alito's feet to the fire.


Even if you only participate on a few of the days it can help make a difference. There are so many issues where Samuel Alito's views and allegiances are just flat out wrong for a SCOTUS nomination.


Note: Tommorrow's actions and reason's are still being worked on today. Feel free to check it out at Booman Tribune (Just look for the "Justice" diaries) and any help or participation of any kind you can provide will be greatly appreciated. This is another action brought to you by the group that brought you "Operation Yellow Feather" which was a very successful cross blog protest. These actions are designed to help bring the "Left Blogosphere Think Tank" together on our many shared issues.


Reader Comments

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If you have any ideas
By connecticutman1 Dec 14th 2005 at 3:25 pm EST
suggestions, comments, and want to participate in any way you feel comfortable, we will show you much of that coveted Blogger's Mojo.

This was posted 2 days ago, and we have 2 more diries of reasons to dump the chimp-chump. I will post those shortly. (This evening?) We are doing most of the work for each days diaries the day before they are posted. So day 4 will be worked on today (By susanhu, I am sure many of you recognize her name), AND I have to do day 5 myself (Roe v Wade).

Help us steamroll this unacceptable nomination.

Would it help if I said pretty please?

We are doing most of the work at the Booman Tribune and if you want to help go there and look for the "Justice diaries".

Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Re: If you have any ideas
By levinson.eric Dec 15th 2005 at 1:33 pm EST
If you are familiar with George Lakoff, it is obvious what needs to be done:

This is a war of values. Conservatives have convinced the Bible belt that it is appropriate to legislate their oppressive values. They have distracted America with issues of ending pregnancies, marriage rights and the like; even at Roberts' nomination hearings, the focus was on these "wedge" issues instead of what was really important: would Roberts legislate from the bench, show deference to well-deliberated Congressional legislation, and how much power given to the President would he tolerate?

We need to take back the language and show the rest of America that homosexuals deserve equal protection of the law and that ending pregnancies is a symptom of much broader social issues relating to poverty and desperation.

We cannot allow the Alito hearings to follow suit and ignore the real issues: will he protect the Constitution and the civil liberties established over 200 years of judicial history.
Re: If you have any ideas
By connecticutman1 Dec 16th 2005 at 8:26 pm EST
Yes... I am pretty familiar with Lakoff. Lakoff is an amateur when compared to Luntz. But the entire left is about 30 years behind the right when it comes to framing, so that is to be expected.

I only use framing to TRY (lol) and avoid the pitfalls of the GOP frames. Some points are always naturally built around a frame, but I prefer to just use facts to bust the GOP frames. And if those facts build a natural frame, OK. But I am not going to go out of my way to try and "trick" people into thinking like I do. That kind of frame can be busted as easily as it can be built.

Well, that is just my opinion on it. I understand that many think framing is the answer. I think the answer is having a solid spine and moving to the left.

All of the frames of the GOP become a moot point when people are fed up with the GOP and want real change Framing can only ever be in the background to that real obvious difference in direction that the Dems can and should provide.

Offer left, Liberal, Progressive, etc, policies and be loud about it, and tell the GOP to stuff it because they have failed.
  
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