[Note: The serious comments on Judge Alito start
with the “afterthought” section below. But, don’t let
that stop you from reading the lighter stuff.]
The nomination of Samuel Anthony Alito for the U.S.
Supreme Court probably has quite a few lawyers and
law students Turning Italian right about now. If they
don’t have time for a deep-immersion course in the
language, I want to recommend Don Cangelosi’s
Italian Without Words (Meadowbrook Press, 1989),
as a practical substitute for serious study. [you can
even look inside the book here for quick pointers]
After spending a little time with Ultralingua,
well as “puff,” in Italian.
alito!
puffs from the right
huffs from the left
dagosan: [Oct. 31, 2005]
Although “scalia” does not appear to be a word in the
Italian language, “scala” is a scale (measure) or staircase
(think escalator). Hmm.
A note to ethnology buffs: If Sam Alito is anything like
your humble Editor, he does not consider himself to be
“Italian.” He’s American and, if you insist on further
ethnic classification, he’s Italo/Italian American. Italian
ancestry is a very good thing, but no one’s taking the
boat back to the Old Country to stay.
orig.
afterthought (midnight): Blue Mass Group weblog has a
very interesting post entitled “One Liberal’s Positive View
of Alito.” The remarks of a progressive democrat who
clerked for Judge Alito are reassuring and well worth
your attention — especially if you are tempted, like
the self-promoting Chuck Schumer, to react very nega-
tively to Judge Alito, merely because he is clearly a
conservative jurist. Go now, read Katherine Pringle’s
assessment of her old boss. (via SCOTUS Blog)
If Judge Alito would indeed be an independent, highly
respected, consensus-building, conservative Justice,
couldn’t he be the best possible person to counter
the extremism of Justice Scalia (pointing out over-
reaching, finding narrower grounds, etc. ) on a Court
that is very likely to have a “conservative” majority
for a very long time?
From TalkLeft: A Defender Praises Alito (Oct. 31, 2005).
Peter Goldberger, a Pennsylvania lawyer, starts his
description of Alito with: Don’t guess at Judge Alito’s
predilictions. I am a full-time criminal defense appellate
litigator, and more than half my cases are in the 3d Circuit.
Alito — unlike some judges we both know — does not “twist
the facts, ignore facts, and even make up facts to make the
facts fit the argument they want to make.” He is intellectually
honest in the highest degree. . . . He is very conservative,
but he is neither knee-jerk nor dishonest.”
From Blue Mass Group: The Alito MoveOn Didn’t Mention
(Nov. 1, 2005): David Kravitz shows how easily the record
of any long-sitting judge can be manipulated. Kravitz
notes: “All that this – or any of the other “lists” floating around –
can prove is that Alito has been a judge for a long time; that
he has decided a lot of tough cases that could have gone
either way; and that you should be very careful about reading
too much into selective “case summaries” proffered by interest
groups with an agenda.” He continues:
“Bottom line: make up your own mind. Do some
research on non-partisan sites (SCOTUSblog is
always a good place to start, and any Alito opinion
published in 1996 or later should be available at Findlaw).
And wait for the confirmation hearings, where you can
bet that Alito will be questioned for hours about many
of the opinions that the lefties are worried about – that,
after all, is what the hearings are for.”