In response to a characteristically fine column on Alito and federalism by Jamelle Bouie, a frequent Times commenter wrote this:
Anyone convinced that a human fetus is inserted with a soul by God at the moment of conception, and that in all the universe, only the human fetus is so infused with divine intention will not be swayed by either logic or the desire for democracy.
There is a reason the founding fathers worked so hard to separate the state from religion and that was because of the tendency of the strongly religious to try to force their views on everyone around them.
When is this coercion ever more extreme than in forcing a woman to lease her body to a fetus for nine months, even when it is the product of rape. To suffer months of sickness and permanent physical scars because the only reason that fetus is in her body was because God intended it to be- the rapist merely His tool.
You can try to fight Alito’s arguments with logic, but I’m afraid the incentives that led to his rationalizations have nothing to do with logic and began with strong religious emotions, probably beginning in his childhood before his brain developed any semblance of deductive reasoning.
If the founding fathers had composed a constitution that truly protected democracy, men like Alito wouldn’t be on the supreme court and the GOP would not be on the ascent as a oppressive religiously deranged institution it is.
He is certainly not the product of a senate or presidents that were selected by the majority of the electorate. — Alan Haigh, NY