If you cherish your rights, Alito bears questioning

When Samuel Alito was a Justice Department lawyer in the 1980s, he wrote that he saw no legal problem with a police officer shooting and killing an unarmed 15-year-old who was fleeing from a $10 burglary.

Alito, now nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, said the shooting "can be justified as reasonable" and advised his bosses that the courts shouldn't interfere with police discretion to use deadly force. But the Supreme Court thought otherwise - by a 6-3 vote. Justice Byron White noted that the Constitution bars "unreasonable" searches and seizures, adding acidly that "a police officer may not seize an unarmed, nondangerous suspect by shooting him dead."

The case is one of numerous examples of Alito's troubling deference, both as a government lawyer and a judge, to the power of government institutions, employers and others in authority. Whether that deference adequately protects rights of individuals deserves very close scrutiny at Senate hearings on his nomination next month:

.......

Alito's record suggests little deference to those most basic American values. This merits aggressive questioning before the Senate puts him on the nation's highest court, where he would have the power to strip away rights Americans assume to be theirs.



http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2005-12-26-alito-editorial_x.htm

offense to you, Thom.
Let's hope Congress is paying attention.