Alito

The more that is revealed about him, the more I say a filibuster is a moral necessity, even if it fails to stop him. How about this story from the LA Times:

The Tennessee case began when two Memphis police officers were called at 10:45 p.m. by a woman who said she heard someone breaking into a house next door.

When one officer entered the house, he heard a door slam.

In the backyard, the officer shined his flashlight on a youth who appeared to be unarmed and who was trying to climb a six-foot-high chain link fence to escape.

"Police! Halt!" the officer called out.

When the youth continued to climb, the officer shot him in the head.

Edward Garner, 15, died a few hours later.

Ten dollars and a purse taken from the house were found on his body.

Tennessee law allowed the police to use "all the necessary means" to stop a fleeing suspect. Garner's father sued the city and its Police Department in federal court for violating his son's constitutional rights.

A federal judge threw out the complaint. But the U.S. Court of Appeals revived it, ruling it was unconstitutional for officers to use deadly force to stop a fleeing suspect unless they believed he posed a "threat to the safety of the officers or a danger to the community." When Tennessee appealed to the Supreme Court, the justices agreed to hear the case.

Alito was then a 34-year-old assistant to the U.S. solicitor general, and he reviewed the case to decide whether the Reagan administration should file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Tennessee.

"In my judgment, the Court of Appeals' decision is wrong and should be reversed," Alito wrote.

Apparently, it's an awful crime to deprive an unborn fetus of life, but ought to be OK to snuff a 15-year-old. At least he's clear.

20 years ago, the Supreme Court said that the 4th Amendment protected us from "unreasonable searches and seizures" and that seizing the life of an unarmed person, who is running away, on just the suspicion that a crime might have been committed and he might have done it, seemed unreasonable.

Maybe I'm "conservative", but I'd like it to stay that way.