Posted on 11/02/2005 1:20:55 PM PST by Clint N. Suhks
PRINCETON, N.J. -- As a senior at Princeton University, Samuel A. Alito Jr. chaired an undergraduate task force that recommended the decriminalization of sodomy, accused the CIA and the FBI of invading the privacy of citizens, and said discrimination against gays in hiring ''should be forbidden."
Alerts The report, issued in 1971 by Alito and 16 other Princeton students, stemmed from a class assignment to study the ''boundaries of privacy in American society" and to recommend ways to protect individual rights.
The far-ranging report, which satisfied a requirement for public policy students and which was stored in the university's Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, provided a glimpse of a more liberal Alito than the jurist is now perceived.
''We sense a great threat to privacy in modern America," Alito wrote in a foreword to the report, in 1971. ''We all believe that privacy is too often sacrificed to other values; we all believe that the threat to privacy is steadily and rapidly mounting; we all believe that action must be taken on many fronts now to preserve privacy."
A classmate, Jeffrey G. Weil, said yesterday that Alito, one of the top seniors in his class, had been selected to advise juniors writing the report, coaching them through the research and then writing an introduction explaining their recommendations.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
When I was in high school I was a socialist who supported polygamy and gay marriage. So what?
That is what they are attempting by digging up stuff from 1971...
Gosh, if I were still responsible for things I wrote in college...
Doesn't take much.
Either that or they are trying to present Alito as an "Evil NEO-CON"...
Working in a law office I have learned that you do your assignments and work on the clients case it does not matter if you are opposed to the clients cause.
LOL. Worked the last time, didn't it?
Ha ha! A closet liberal! j/k
Actually, I used to call myself a "Trotskyite", although I didn't have the slightest idea what it meant, except that it was against greed, but without the "unfortunate Soviet detour".
This sucks. Alito is a penumbra fan? Or just Winston Churchill's quote "if you're not a liberal in youth you have no heart, if you're not a conservative when you're old you have no brain"?
I once chaired an undergraduate task force in college where I was outvoted on nearly every single issue. The final recommendations had all of our names on it, mine appearing first.
Has he repudiated these positions? This sounds bad, but I'm not ready to pitch him overboard yet. I would like to hear in his own words that he no longer believes it though.
Yep and there are already at least a dozen on FR who have fallen for it. Of course most of them hated Roberts and Miers so they probably would hate whoever the President nominated.
In this case, Alito wrote the introduction, though. That sounds like he was on board with the recommendations.
The latter, certainly. Churchill was a wise man. I think a liberal youth can be a sign of a naive but inquisitive mind. Alito as Judge speaks for itself.
Great, so no problem in voting for him, right libs? We look forward to your support Kennedy, Schumer, etc.
Now Im starting to wonder about this guy. We need a principled conservative did we get that with Alito?
I didn't know what to make of Coulter's early criticism of Miers. But she was proven correct, IMHO. And she likes Alito. That counts a lot in my book. If even Coulter likes Alito, then he's got something going for him. The only thing bothering me is prior unanymous votes for him. Guess that's how DC used to be, but it still feels weird. Heheheh.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.