"Bush-Authorized Spying Spills Into Alito Hearings"

U.S. senators challenging Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination are focusing on a potentially combustible issue to raise at the confirmation hearings starting today: the limits of presidential power.

Senators say Alito's writings endorsing a strong executive have taken new significance since the disclosure that President George W. Bush authorized eavesdropping on American citizens without court approval.

Democrats have decided the issue is so politically potent that they are leaving questions on abortion mainly to Republicans -- a tactic that runs the risk of offending some of their strongest supporters. The intense focus on presidential power has unnerved some women's rights groups, which have traditionally played a central role in Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

Even two Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, say they will query Alito on the responsibility of the courts to constrain presidential authority. The spying ``raises very fundamental questions about how we proceed to gather information, fundamental questions on privacy and the Bill of Rights,'' Specter says.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0109-09.htm

This is a fundamental issue.

and Corporate power over people power. Hey Alito where are you on FASCISM?
No disrespect to Women's rites here. We know he opposes them. He is not an acceptable SCJ.

:kick: