How Justice Alito CREATED the Trump Presidency DISASTER
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Summary
Takeaways
- ❖Justice Alito's 'Revenge for the 60s' ideology originated from his experience as a traditional, Catholic, Italian-American student at a rapidly liberalizing Princeton in the late 1960s.
- ❖His early career path, initially apolitical, shifted dramatically as he strategically aligned with the Reagan Justice Department's conservative agenda under Ed Meese.
- ❖Alito played a role in developing key conservative legal doctrines, including originalism and the unitary executive theory, which sought to maximize executive power.
- ❖A surprising connection exists between Alito and the Trump family through his mentorship by Maryanne Trump Barry, Donald Trump's sister, during his time as an Assistant US Attorney.
Insights
1Princeton's Formative Impact on Alito's Conservatism
Alito's experience as a traditional, Catholic, Italian-American student at Princeton (1968-1972) during a period of intense social and political upheaval (co-education, anti-war protests, changing social norms) profoundly shaped his 'Revenge for the 60s' mindset. He felt pressured to defend traditional values and was offended by the cancellation of exams during student strikes, which he saw as undermining meritocracy.
Sam Alto came to Princeton in 1968... he's already envisioning... the wife and the two children and the legal job... then he realizes that he's in the last all-male class... women showing up. The conversation changes... he felt very pressed upon to defend his traditional Catholic prohibitions on premarital sex and his traditional Catholic views about abortion... he was most offended by... the fact that he wasn't able to show what he what he knew... he was the striver... he was deeply offended that the faculty would agree to to cancel exams.
2Strategic Embrace of Explicit Conservatism
Despite an early career path marked by an apolitical demeanor, Alito explicitly declared his conservative values to gain influence within the Reagan Justice Department under Attorney General Ed Meese. This declaration, including support for the controversial 'Concerned Alumni of Princeton' (CAP), was a strategic move to persuade Meese and his inner circle of his ideological alignment.
Cooper says that he, uh, and Alo sat down and said, 'Okay, you're going to write me a letter explaining your conservative values and your conservatism and persuade, we're going to use this to persuade me and his inner circle that you really are a conservative...' It was in that document that he mentioned his support for the concerned alumni of Princeton for CAP, which is this notorious organization... that opposed u uh women and uh expressed deep skepticism about minority students fitting in at Princeton. It also, you know, was very anti-gay.
3Development of Core Conservative Legal Doctrines
Within Meese's legislative strategy working group, Alito contributed to the development and promotion of key conservative legal doctrines, specifically originalism and the unitary executive theory. These doctrines, conceived when Republicans anticipated greater presidential than congressional influence, aimed to maximize executive authority and challenge independent agencies.
He joins Mis's legislative strategy working group, which is really sort of the red-hot center of the development of conservative legal ideology in the Reagan era. And out of that come two doctrines that are out of this sort of factory. One is originalism and the other is the unitary executive... These are deeply conservative uh doctrines. They were interestingly developed I think at a time when Republicans felt they had a better shot at the presidency than Congress... they wanted to have maximum executive authority. Um and the unitary executive theory essentially is an attack on independent agencies.
Lessons
- To understand a judicial figure's decisions, examine their formative personal experiences, such as college years and early career influences, as these often provide critical context for their legal interpretations.
- When evaluating a public servant's stated political positions, consider the career context; explicit ideological declarations can be strategic moves for advancement within ideologically aligned administrations.
- Investigate the historical and political origins of influential legal doctrines, like originalism and the unitary executive, to grasp their intended purpose and potential implications for governance.
Quotes
"You hear Justice Alo speak many times about uh you know justice for religious people, justice for people who believed in traditional values etc etc and it's it's all combined in him uh this sort of sense of the im immigrant experience the sense of the teachings of the Catholic Church and the sort of traditional values of the United States in in some ways they're all one and the same in Alito's mind when you when you seriously read his interviews and and many of his judicial opinions."
"Princeton became a defining moment in his life. No question."
"He paints a picture of himself that, you know, certainly his a-olitical father would be shocked at. And later as he many years later when he's nominated to the Supreme Court becomes his his greatest liability and the biggest hurdle to his confirmation."
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