Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito’s confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin January 9th. So brace yourself for seven more weeks of rancor and television ads.
The burning issue for me (the pun is intended) is the flag burning amendment that is awaiting a vote in the Senate. Following a couple of Supreme Court decisions beginning with Texas vs. Johnson in 1989 that declared burning American flags is constitutionally protected free speech, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are hoping to pass a constitutional amendment that would allow states to ban the desecration of the American flag.
So what does the flag amendment have to do with the confirmation hearings of Sam Alito, you may be wondering? Well, burning American flags is one of the issues at the forfront according to new TV ad sponsored by conservative supporters. The ad in question goes after liberal political actions groups like The People For The American Way by correctly pointing out some key elements of their agenda:
"Their agenda is clear. They want to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance and are fighting to redefine traditional marriage."
The ad then goes on to charge that Alito’s opponents "support partial-birth abortion and sanction the burning of the American flag."
Amazingly enough, The People for the American Way has no disagreement with most of the above statements. They only take issue with the part about the Pledge of Allegiance, according to NBC news:
A spokesman for People for the American Way says the group has never advocated taking "under God" out of the pledge. However, a lawyer for the group did express support for a lawsuit that would have banned public schools from leading children in reciting the pledge.
Well, I guess there’s somehthing to be said for honesty. You don’t need to take "under God" out of the pledge if you’ve already banned the pledge from the classroom and thrown away those American flags too!
So will Alito, if confirmed, bring his considerable judicial experience to bear on the issues raised by this ad? Probably all of them except the one about burning American flags. That’s because the Court has already ruled on the issue multiple times and with a constitutional amendment in the offing, isn’t likely to hear about it any time soon.