Judge Alito

[Edward A Hartnett]

It seems to me that one big advantage that Judge Alito has is that he sits 
in a state with two Democratic Senators.  I tend to think that both would 
support him -- or at least not support a filibuster against him.  Senator 
Lautenberg spoke in his behalf when he was nominated to the court of 
appeals.  Senator Corzine is running for Governor is not likely to want to 
let his gubernatorial opponent complain that he is keeping a New Jerseyan 
off the Supreme Court -- particularly since the leading newspaper in the 
state today (in a real surprise) endorsed Corzine's opponent in part 
because of Corzine's opposition to Chief Justice Roberts.

Ed Hartnett
Seton Hall






"Tepker, Rick" <rtepker at ou.edu> 
Sent by: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
10/30/2005 12:10 PM

To
<CONLAWPROF at lists.ucla.edu>
cc

Subject
RE: Judge Alito







>From Jeffrey Rosen's article in the New  Republic on possible candidates 
for the Court:
 
"What should be far more troubling to Senate Democrats, however, is 
Alito's 1996 dissent from a decision upholding the constitutionality of a 
federal law prohibiting the possession of machine guns. Applying the logic 
of  the Constitution in Exile for all it's worth, Alito insisted that the 
private  possession of machine guns was not an economic activity, and 
there was no  empirical evidence that private gun possession increased 
violent crime in a way  that substantially affected commerce--therefore, 
Congress has no right to  regulate it. Alito's colleagues criticized him 
for requiring 'Congress or the  Executive to play Show and Tell with the 
federal courts at the peril of  invalidation of a Congressional statute.' 
His lack of deference to Congress is  unsettling."
 
I'd think that judicial tinkering with statutes about  automatic weapons 
might be problematic in the post-9/11 world.  
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