Now Playing: new world ordure, mofos
I managed to catch Sam Alito's surprisingly blunt remarks on the issue of whether the Supreme Court of the United States should be guided by the laws and decisions of other countries. So did John Hinderaker. He quotes the New York Times on this morning's hearings:
"I don't think it's appropriate or useful to look to foreign law in interpreting the provisions of our Constitution," Judge Alito said in response to questions from Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, in the third day of the judge's confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee.I love that.
"I think the Framers would be stunned by the idea that the Bill of Rights is to be interpreted by taking a poll of the countries of the world," Judge Alito said. "The purpose of the Bill of Rights was to give Americans rights that were recognized practically nowhere else in the world at the time. The Framers did not want Americans to have the rights of people in France or the rights of people in Russia or any of the other countries on the continent of Europe at the time; they wanted them to have the rights of Americans."
(And be sure to have a look at this C-SPAN video of Antonin Scalia and Steven Breyer discussing this very issue last January. I can't help but to think that Scalia smiled when he heard Alito's response.)