Christian Attorneys: Alito the Right Man for the Job
by Allie Martin and Jody Brown
November 1, 2005
(AgapePress) - Two prominent Christian attorneys are saying Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito not only fulfills a campaign promise made by George W. Bush, but also sports credentials showing himself to be a fair judge who respects the rule of law on constitutional matters.
The chief counsel for the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy (CLP) says President Bush's nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court is a major step forward. At the same time, the president of Liberty Counsel says Alito is one of the most qualified Supreme Court nominees in recent memory.
Judge Alito, nominated on Monday to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the high court, has served on the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for 15 years. In the ten years leading up to that post, he served as a U.S. attorney in New Jersey, deputy assistant to Attorney General Edwin Meese, and assistant to the Solicitor General.
During his time on the federal bench, Alito has become known as having a strong, conservative judicial philosophy. Constitutional lawyers say that as a federal appeals court judge, Alito has upheld the religious rights of Christians, Jews, Muslims and American Indians, and has rejected efforts to ban Nativity scenes and menorahs from public places.
In an Associated Press report Vanderbilt University law professor Suzanna Sherry predicts that Alito "would allow a lot more government support of religion than Justice O'Connor did." She predicts that if Alito is confirmed, "the place where it will be felt most quickly and most directly is in the area of religion."
Such a prediction does not sit well the head of the National Council of Churches. Rev. Bob Edgar tells AP that Alito is more likely to please what he calls "the radical religious right."
Looking at Past Rulings
The CLP's Steve Crampton says President Bush has kept a promise to conservatives with the nomination of Alito. "He has indeed delivered on his promise to nominate men and women in the tradition of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas," Crampton says. The CLP attorney once appeared before Judge Alito in the case of Saxe v. State College Area School District. He recalls the judge's role in the case.
"Judge Alito authored the majority opinion, giving us a win in which we challenged an anti-harassment policy adopted at the insistence of the homosexual radicals in the school district there," Crampton explains. He says the federal judge quickly saw the district's actions "as being in complete violation of the free-speech clause of the First Amendment and contrary to the principles on which this country was founded."
Crampton adds that Alito does not claim to be an ideologue -- but says he does not need to be. "All the Constitution requires, and what America needs," says the AFA attorney, "is a judge who respects the rule of law and the restraints placed upon the Court under our constitutional republic."
Crampton feels Alito's record makes it clear that he will support the proper role of the Supreme Court. Mat Staver with Liberty Counsel agrees. He recalls Alito's ruling in a case involving a Christian group, the Child Evangelism Fellowship, saying he ruled "the right way" in the case, which dealt with distributing Christian literature about the after-school Christian club.
"He [also] went the right way on a school harassment policy that tried to bring homosexual sexual orientation to the level of thought police," Staver says. "He found that that would violate the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. I think the Democrats are going to have a difficult time trying to oppose him because of his exceptional background and well-qualified judicial experience."
According to the Liberty Counsel attorney, Alito -- whom he describes as "a great jurist, a great candidate" -- has written opinions in many high-profile cases.
"He's written a number of decisions that we all will stand behind," he says. "He was the lone dissenter in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, the one that went up to the United States Supreme Court that re-solidified abortion."
Staver explains that in that particular case, Alito believed that a spouse ought to have notification of an abortion. He adds that he thinks the judge's jurisprudence "would go even further in his philosophy to actually not support any kind of abortion right coming out of the Constitution."
If that is the case, it would be consistent with Alito's religious background. Associated Press reports that should Alito be confirmed to the high court, he would become the fifth Roman Catholic on the current court, giving it a Catholic majority for the first time. The four Catholics currently serving are Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Anthony Kennedy, the latter of whom has been a disappointment to Catholics who hoped he would help overturn Roe v. Wade or uphold legal restrictions on abortion.
AP also says Alito's mother stated that her son grew up participating in Masses and reading from the Bible, adding that he still holds his Catholic values. Rose Alito said, "Of course he's against abortion" -- but then asked reporters gathered in her home not to write down her remark.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
