Monday, November 14, 2005

Is the risk worth the legal gymnastics?

I hope the Democrats fight like hell against the confirmation of Justice Alito.

The right to privacy with regard to abortions is too important to risk on an extremely conservative judge who may or may not overrule Roe v. Wade and progeny, not to mention the potential for an even further, frightening slide of our government towards the right. I won't argue legal technicalities a la Althouse because, while such legal gymnastics is admirable, uber-attention to academic case-law-speak seems to lead to a real loss of soul, a loss of practical reality when it comes to abortion. Losing the right to have a medically sound abortions in the many states across the country will be devastating to women. Period. The bigger picture must be taken into account first and foremost, second to Alito's allegedly sound though outrageous positions in several cases. I'm not willing to risk this loss, just so a few can be proven accurate in legal analysis skills.

Sure, federalism is fascinating and oh-so-thrilling as a means to show off one's higher education, but in doing so, you've lost the fight for basic American rights. Particularly, women's rights. Is getting Alito on the court based on tearing apart his critics for their failures of technical legal smarts worth the risk of losing what women have fought so hard for over the past twenty-five years?

Is fighting for Alito worth this loss?

4 comments:

Patrick O'Neil said...

I can’t help but think that its all staged and there’s these definite turns being taken; like first we get Clinton, and now we got Bush and in the end they all do they same crap! War on crime - war for oil! As our streets keep flowin’ with drugs and our prisons grow to hold our children and in the end I just don’t feel like any of them really care or are doing anything different! Of course this doesn’t stop me from voting and if I’m in the mood marching in the streets for a cause, but it ain’t the 60’s no more, and social change only happens in the pay offs and bargaining sessions that we don’t see, so sometimes I feel like what’s the use!

But I’ll be damned if they think that they’re gonna put some conservative in the Supreme Court to pass judgment over me for the next twenty years!

Marching in the streets anyone?

BarbaraFromCalifornia said...

One should not ever give up the fight! Now, whether one can win the fight is a separate issue.

I read about his views on abortion in 1985, and it makes me question whether he can be truly fair and impartial as he sits in the highest court in the land.

Thank you for your kind wishes on my blog. This has been a difficult time for our family.

Brenda Clews said...

Giving women reproductive rights is fundamentally important. In every way possible and imaginable and in any society on the face of the earth. Removing any part of that, from access to contraception through to medically safe abortions, will undermine all efforts for equality. I don't even want to think about the consequences of forcing women into having babies they are not able to care properly for or unsafe abortions with the appointment of Alito.

As a feminist, and even as a Canadian, hey the border is permeable, what's in the US will make its way up here eventually, I'll march with you, Adriana...

I'm a maternal theorist, and I celebrate motherhood, but only in context of women having reproductive rights, it's foundational, it's key.

Lori said...

Well, I certainly don't think it's a good idea for anybody to overturn Roe vs. Wade. It's funny, because you'd think that to be a judge, you'd have to be a pretty smart cookie. So you'd think they'd get the fact that making something illegal doesn't make it disappear. If this Alito dude really IS that gung-ho on making abortions illegal again, well then, he probably won't get past the hearings, and shouldn't.

That said, though, the behavior on both sides of the aisle regarding these nominations has left me pretty disgusted. I'm not about to start a fan club for W or anything, but it's clear that the dems won't let him get anything done. He could nominate Mother Teresa (RIP), and they'd start bitching and whining about her too. Doesn't matter what party, politicians just suck. THEY ALL SUCK.