The Best Shot?

The ChiTrib fired it's cannon at Alito this morning in an op/ed by Geoff Stone, a U of Chicago law prof and free speech advocate.

Here, in Stone's view, is why the Senate should not confirm this highly qualified candidate: the Sedition Act of 1798, the Sedition Act of 1918, and the Smith Act of 1940, Lincoln's suspending the writ of habeas corpus, Roosevelt's internment of 120,000 individuals of Japanese descent, and Richard M. Nixon's unlawful break-ins and wiretaps.

Hmm. He didn't mention Clinton's multiple invasions of privacy. Let's count that as a strike against whatever Stone has to say. Anyway:

The most fundamental responsibility of the Supreme Court is to preserve both the separation of powers and the individual liberties guaranteed by our Constitution. They are the bulwarks of our freedom. Yet history teaches that these indispensable elements of our constitutional system are most threatened in time of war. Too often in wartime, the president demands excessive authority in his role as commander in chief and the president and Congress run roughshod over civil liberties in their effort to protect, or appear to protect, the nation.

The Supremes have come to the defense in some of these cases, not in others, but they most certainly have an important role in keeping the balance balanced.

So too does the President have an important role in keeping the Supremes balanced. When they begin to over-exert themselves and take away, as Stone puts it, "the individual liberties guaranteed by our Constitution," he gets to do something about it.

For the Bush electorate, trust in government runs pretty high, and faith that any rigorous application of executive power will be monitored, controlled, and temporary. Ask us if the separation of powers is the biggest issue facing the nation and you're liking to get a rich, rolling laugh.

But ask us if taking away parents' authority over children, the right to worship in the public square, the right to protect our property from illegal government siezure ... well, now we're talking about some dangerous, troubling stuff.

Stone sees the Red Scare and Japanese internment as two of the darkest times in American history. I see Pearl Harbor and 9/11. And I see in Alito a reasonable man, who is not so overly beholden to the Left's fear of a Republican Executive that he would risk our freedom.

Stone's done a good job of laying out the Dem's primary battle cry against Alito. It echoes hollowly from somewhere long before Sept. 11.

h/t RCP