AMY GOODMAN: That was Senate Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter responding to Senator Ted Kennedy. Later, Specter acknowledged his office had received the letter and that his staffers were obtaining the records for the committee without a subpoena. To discuss the significance of Alito's connection with Concerned Alumni of Princeton, as well as other issues, we'll be joined by a number of guests after break.

To discuss the significance of Samuel Alito's connection with the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, as well as other issues raised during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings we're joined by two guests: Jamin Raskin joins us in Washington, Professor of Constitutional Law at American University School of Law, author of Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court vs. The American People; and here in our Firehouse studio, we're joined by Ted Shaw, Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He is scheduled to testify at the Alito hearings tomorrow. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!

Let's start with Ted Shaw. Your response first to this whole discussion about the group, Princeton alumni, the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, and the other key issues that your organization has considered, after coming out against the nomination of Judge Alito to be Supreme Court justice.

TED SHAW: Well, thank you, Amy, and good morning to you. One of the things that was clear as the record developed yesterday during the hearings was that it's incredible to think that the nominee has no memory of this group. And what's interesting about it is he says he has no memory of being part of this group; on the other hand, if he was part of it, it was because of the ROTC concerns on the Princeton campus.

This was a group that got a lot of attention. It was very controversial, as we heard in the lead-in. Bill Bradley distanced himself from this group. So it really strains credibility to think he has no memory. He put it down on his job application, because it was significant to him. And it was significant, because he thought that it would help him in positioning him with getting a job with the Reagan administration Justice Department.

Now, I left the Justice Department in the early 1980s because of the policies of the Reagan administration and civil rights. I was in the civil rights division. I remember the ideological climate at the time. And there were young go-getter conservatives who would do anything to position themselves, but they were also true believers.

I really don't think that this is the issue that the Legal Defense Fund would spend most of its time on. It's covered in our report. But it has emerged as a significant issue, because it's a credibility issue. We're more concerned now with the record that Judge Alito has on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which indicates that, for the most part, his vote has not been in play on behalf of African Americans and women, other minorities, in discrimination cases. That's our concern.

This is not a stealth candidate. This is somebody with a well-established record. We think his confirmation to the court will move the court significantly further in a direction in which it would be very, very difficult for African American, Latino, women, people who are disabled, to win claims of discrimination, because -- for whatever reason. I can't peer into his mind -- for whatever reason. He has a record of ruling in favor of defendants in these kinds of cases. So that's the basis on which we're opposing this nomination.

This is a court that has been narrowly divided in race discrimination cases for 25 years, 5-4 decisions in almost every major case. So we believe that his confirmation will move the court much further to the right, because Justice O’Connor is a conservative justice already; he's even more conservative than Justice O’Connor.

JUAN GONZALEZ: In your report, you go through the history of cases that Judge Alito was involved in, both on the bench, as well as in the Justice Department. And you go in-depth into some cases: the Sheet Metal Workers Union discrimination case that dates back to the 1970s, and also to the famous firefighters case in Cleveland, Ohio, where in both cases the judge really seemed to be at the extreme measure -- at that time he was in the Justice Department -- at the extreme end on affirmative action. Could you talk a little about specifically the positions that he took then?

TED SHAW: Well, as a Justice Department lawyer, when he was recommending what positions the department should take, he was a clear opponent of affirmative action. That's why this whole issue of C.A.P. is significant, in part, because his views as a Justice Department lawyer are remarkably consistent with what he has done on the bench. He has been an opponent of affirmative action. So, those memoranda from the Justice Department days indicate that. On the bench he has been more conservative than conservative judges. So often he has been a dissenter from opinions in which some of the conservative judges ruled in favor of civil rights claimants.

And when he has ruled in favor of civil rights claimants, it's been in cases that have been slam dunks. It would be almost impossible to go the other way. In fact, one of the significant things we point to is that in 15 years on the bench, he has only ruled on the merits for African American plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases twice. That's a record that is significant. So, you know, you can't change that. You can't get around it. For whatever reason, he has indicated this leaning which causes us legitimate concern about what he would do on the Supreme Court.

AMY GOODMAN: We're also joined by Jamin Raskin in our Washington studio. Your major concerns as you follow this hearing, but, of course, assess Samuel Alito's record before this week.

JAMIN RASKIN: Well, the testimony was definitely not credible. I mean, to say that he was a member of the Concerned Alumni of Princeton in the 1980s, and bragged about it in 1985, because of ROTC being off campus for a couple of years in the 1970s is just completely farfetched. It's like saying someone is joining MoveOn.org in 2006, because they're opposed to the Republican impeachment effort against Bill Clinton in the 1990s. So, the testimony did not add up, and he was a tense and nervous witness in talking about all of those things.

But I would echo Ted's sentiment here, that in a certain sense it's kind of a sideshow. Our position on this kind of structuring in order to determine his views would be that this is kind of guilt by association. Of course, the Bush administration thinks that this is enough to declare people terrorists, because they're members of groups, even if they don't adhere to everything that the group does, even if they don't know what all the ideological planks are. But, from our perspective, I think that it would be enough just to look at the public record, that is, what do the cases say?

And if you don't think that this is a judge interested in overturning Roe v. Wade based on his opinion in the Casey decision that started in the Third Circuit or based on his statements in Department of Justice briefs, you're too innocent to be let out of the house by yourself. It's very clear that he thinks Roe v. Wade is not anchored in the text, the history, the structure of the Constitution.

And also, I was extremely disturbed by his answers to Senator Specter's questioning yesterday about a series of cases where the Rehnquist court has been dismantling federal statutes, like parts of the Violence Against Women Act, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the Gun-Free School Zones Act. The Rehnquist court is perhaps the most activist court in American history, in terms of dismantling acts of Congress. And in questioning Alito directly about that, Alito essentially took the position that the Supreme Court's test about congruence and proportionality got it right in terms of what Congressional powers under the 14th Amendment are. And so, that was extremely sobering and disappointing, as well.

But, in truth, we know exactly why Alito is there. This is the Federalist Society dream candidate for the Supreme Court. They've dressed him up for the confirmation hearings, but he is a rightwing ideologue in black robes.

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