Scalito: The More Serious Problem

Today Senator Ken Salazar, the Colorado Senator to be proud of, spoke of caution concerning Justice Nominee Samuel Alito. Allard the Torturer has yet to weigh in but I'm sure that he'll parrot whatever Dobson, Robertson and Bush tell him. Senator Salazar may soon have a very influential role to play as part of the Gang of 14 in whether seventy years of progress in this country are scrapped for a return to nineteenth century lassiez-faire capitalism and absentee government.

We know that Scalito will vote against Roe v. Wade every chance he gets. He has in the past, there's no reason to think the zebra will change his stripes. His mother, God bless her, has already stated as much, that he, as a devout Catholic, will vote against Roe every chance he has. (So tell me, Shrub, does religion count on this one or not?) More disturbing to me is his dissent in a case involving sale of machine guns. He wrote, paraphrased, that since the sale of machine guns is a point sale, the Interstate Commerce clause of the Constitution doesn't apply and the law is unconstitutional. This is the seventy years of legal precedent we have to worry about.

Once home, I got out my copy of the Constitution and looked the clause up. It states:

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; ... To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States and with the Indian tribes....

This clause limits the authority of the Congress over states. Strictly interpreted, it means that Congress has no authority over issues that remain with in a State's boundary and strict Constructionists hold the view that it limits most of the contentious laws we have in effect today. I can imagine a scenario: A company within a single state decides to impose a discriminatory hiring practice such as no homosexuals may work for the company. A fired employee brings suit which is appealed to the Supreme Court. In a 5-4 decision, the Court decides the Civil Rights act violates the Interstate Commerce clause and then Alabama can fire all its blacks. Or this: Suit is brought against a company for dumping dioxins in a landfill. The dioxins aren't crossing a state line so Congress has no authority to regulate. There go our Federal environmental laws. The Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, various Civil Rights legislation, a number of laws designed to protect us, everyday citizens, will be struck down based on what the Wingnuts euphemistically call "strict constructionism."

Scalito is dangerous to our civil rights, to the environment, to our few rights as employees. His position as concerns Roe v. Wade is disturbing but it doesn't impact everyone. His interpretation of the Interstate Commerce clause of the Constitution will. It is in this area that we need to exercise the most vigilance. It is also in this area that we have a chance to display our values and, I hope, the Group of 14 come to the conclusion that Scalito is just a bit too radical and Bork him right out of a job.