The lighter side of Judge Alito

He isn't all about pushing for the destruction of Roe v Wade. In this latest detail culled from his work for the Reagan White House, Sam Alito shows that he knows how to let his hair down and have some good, clean fun:

Alito wrote that he saw no constitutional problem with a police officer shooting and killing an unarmed teenager who was fleeing after a $10 home burglary.

"I think the shooting [in this case] can be justified as reasonable," Alito wrote in a 1984 memo to Justice Department officials. Because the officer could not know for sure why a suspect was fleeing, the courts should not set a rule forbidding the use of deadly force, he said.

"I do not think the Constitution provides an answer to the officer's dilemma," Alito advised. A year later, however, the Supreme Court used the same case to set a firm national rule against the routine use of "deadly force" against fleeing suspects who pose no danger. "It is not better that all felony suspects die than that they escape," wrote Justice Byron White for a 6-3 majority in Tennessee vs. Garner. "Where the suspect poses no immediate threat to the officer and no threat to others, the harm resulting from failing to apprehend him does not justify the use of deadly force to do so."

I feel better about his Supreme Court nomination than ever. He's clearly just a regular Joe. Ahh, yes. Now I remember why I started calling the Bush Republicans neo-fascists last year.