From the very outset, the battle was going to be ugly, and some senators made sure they delivered. The Judicial committee "hearings" took a really long time to finish, although what we were able to hear were mostly sanctimonious speeches by the members of that committee on things they held dear about the US system of justice. That's such a shame, for there were so many good and potentially informative questions to be asked, and everyone who is not all that familiar with constitutional law (which is pretty much everyone) could have used the opportunity to learn more. The attacks, when they came, were personal and focused mainly on guilt by association. The rhetoric became heated at times, with a few members of the committee engaging in blatant character assassination of the lowest kind. By the time discussion reached the full Senate, all pretence of civil and rational discussion was gone.
I followed parts of it on C-SPAN. At one point I was in a different room and left the TV on. I was able to tune out and do my work, but then I was startled by some shrill, angry voice coming from the TV. For a moment I thought that it was some kind of a madman who eluded the Capitol Hill police and entered the Senate, but then I realized that it was just Ed Kennedy, back to his old tricks. Still going strong after all these years. Luckily, his invectives have very little effect nowadays.
Some of the intellectually most inane arguments against Judge Alito focused on the facts that he is a conservative who will be replacing a moderate, a man who will be replacing a women. And of course the fact that he was white did not help either. What all these arguments take for granted is that there should be some kind of a quota system for the Supreme Court. The fact that the Supreme Court is the supreme judicial body that is responsible that justice is distributed fairly, without regard for sex, race, or creed, seems to be completely lost on those critics. It would be laughable were it not so tragic.
One of the longest and most enduring quotas that was applied to the Supreme Court was the unwritten rule that prevented that body from having more than one Catholic at any given time. With Judge Alito's confirmation there are now five Catholics sitting on that court. It is my belief that all of them, as well as the other four members, got to be there because of their impeccable credentials and years of dedication to the service of justice in the US. I hope these continue to be the most important criteria for the election of all the future Justices of the Supreme Court.
