Impeach Alito
There are many people in the Democratic Party who are pushing for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. I can definitely see the appeal in doing that, since they seem to use the Constitution as toilet paper and fail to view those important rights that we have as being important to uphold in a time of war. The problem is that we only have to deal with them for a year and a half. Justice Alito has a lifelong appointment on the bench.
One of the checks on the power of the judiciary is the ability of the legislative branch to remove a justice from the bench. It is time that the legislative branch uses that power.
I have already written about him and his lies about supporting the concept of Stare Decisis. What is now even more disturbing is his vote on the recent discrimination case which now provides that a person who feels discriminated against has to file suit 180 days after the discrimination starts! Many of the issues covered by Title VII are reportable immediately. However, a discrepancy in pay would be near impossible to find out within 180 days of it first happening. And from what this court has now ruled, once the 180 days pass, it is ok to keep on discriminating against the person with that wage because they can no longer file a lawsuit to seek damages from being discriminated against.
Alito’s illogical argument, on which the rest of the “right wing” of the court agreed, is that the act of setting one persons pay is the discriminatory act. What Alito ignores is the fact that each time a paycheck is issued (with a discrepancy of wages between genders) it is another act of discrimination. Paycheck writing is a “discrete act”, just as is “pay setting”. Why Alito and the rest of the conservative hacks on the court cannot see it is beyond me.
Justice Alito swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. His rulings so far seem to place him in direct contradiction of that document. He should be protecting people from discrimination and not allowing employers to get through loopholes and hope that people don’t find out about their discriminatory decisions until after their time runs out. That is the basis on which he should be removed from the bench.
Of course, the Republicans in the House and Senate will probably have enough votes to prevent him from being removed from the bench. However, such an impeachment trial would highlight those Republicans who are supportive of such rulings (like this abhorrent one) and that could be very costly to them in the 2008 elections. So either, the Republicans in Congress will have to decide to vote with the will of the American People, or vote against them and keep Judicial Activist Alito on the bench.
To read the opinion of the Court, click here.