WASHINGTON (AP) - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito defended the right of government officials to order domestic wiretaps when he worked for the Reagan Justice Department, documents released Friday show.
He advocated a step by step approach to strengthening the hand of officials in a 1984 memo to the solicitor general. The strategy is similar to the one that Alito espoused for rolling back abortion rights at the margins.
The release of the memo by the National Archives comes when President Bush is under fire for secretly ordering domestic spying of suspected terrorists without a warrant. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has promised to question Alito about the administration's program.
The Associated Press had requested documents related to Alito under the Freedom of Information Act.
I'm not sure that the 1984 memo the AP has received has anything to do with support for government wiretapping powers. As Senator Cornyn points out:
%u201CAny connection between Judge Alito's 1984 memorandum and the current discussion of terrorist surveillance by the NSA is a real stretch. The 1984 memorandum involved domestic surveillance, which the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 1972, and which Judge Alito did not question in any way. The question Judge Alito addressed in the 1984 memorandum was whether lawsuits for money damages against government officials were the proper remedy for illegal wiretaps. The Supreme Court agreed with him 5-2 that they were not.
%u201CThe fact that Judge Alito's opponents have embraced this memorandum in their efforts to defeat him prove how little ammunition they have to oppose him.%u201D
Alito may or may not have formulated a legal opinion as to domestic government espionage in the past, but if he has this memo (which has to do with the legality of suing the government in response to domestic espionage not the legality of the espionage itself) isn't it.
The media is being more than a little misleading in their reporting of this memo.
Regardless, given Alito's legal pedigree and strict adherence to the law in his opinions, if he has weighed in on domestic espionage he's probably been correct. I'd look forward to seeing any actual opinions from him applicable to the current situation.