The Human Rights Campaign and its lib-left abortion-rights allies have come out against the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. As with John Roberts, they have done so before a word of testimony has been given in the upcoming Senate confirmation hearings.
Alito has a scant record on gay issues, aside from two separate
rulings on public school anti-harassment policies. In Saxe v. State
College Area School District, he struck down one policy as
too broad, noting:
There is no categorical 'harassment exception' to the First Amendment's free speech clause....When laws against harassment attempt to regulate oral or written expression on such topics, however detestable the views expressed may be, we cannot turn a blind eye to the First Amendment implications.
Free speech advocates supported the ruling, but it's what the gay groups are hanging around Alito's neck.
In another case, Shore Regional High School Board of Education v. P.S., Alito reversed a lower court in order to uphold the claim of a student regularly called names such as "faggot," "gay," and "homo" that he was not afforded appropriate protection from harassment.
Cut to the chase: these groups are opposing Alito because they think he'll rule to limit abortion on demand. Period.
I wonder about the practical effect of such intense and highly political opposition-including by Lambda Legal Defense, which may well be arguing gay rights cases before Alito and Roberts. When you assert firmly that they will "Roll Back Civil Rights Protections for the LGBT Community," you may have ensured you've made a self-fulfilling prophesy (hey, all the better for future fundraising!).
More: Or, as one of our readers puts it, the actual threat is to "9th-month, partial-birth, taxpayer-funded, abortion-on-demand for minors without parental notification." The NARAL crowd that the gay groups have joined with in "coalition building" represents a minority of American opinion, which consistenlty favors legal abortion with some limitations, weighing an individual's right to autonomy against the destruction of a living being (in some cases, moments before a live birth).
Joining our fight for legal equality to those demanding no abortion restrictions works against us with the very independents we need to win over.
Still more: Law.com on the liberals'
strategy: "Transform Alito into Robert Bork by any means
possible-whether the shoe fits or not."