Conservative U.S. Justice Samuel Alito has come under fire for his argument in a speech last year that “the closure of the city under the Wuhan pneumonia (novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19) outbreak is a stress test of individual liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. In an interview yesterday (Jan. 31), Alito explained that he was not surprised by the criticism.
According to USA Today, Alito, who has been a justice for 15 years, said in a speech at the Federalist Society, a conservative think tank, on Nov. 12 of last year that “the Epidemic‘s various sequester measures are an unprecedented restriction on personal freedom. In a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative think tank, on November 12 of last year, Alito came under fire for suggesting that the “unprecedented restrictions on personal liberty imposed by the epidemic’s embargoes are a constitutional stress test. In response, Alito explained, “Virtually every specific argument that I made in that speech came either from my open court written opinion or from my collegial written opinion.”
Alito, who predicted in his speech that his words would be twisted by people of a particular position, also said in an interview yesterday, “I’m not surprised by the reactions.”
Alito pointed out that there is a growing trend in American society today where hostility surrounds a person when they state an unfashionable viewpoint. Alito also resents the current Culture of political correctness and speech scrutiny that produces gag lists.
Adam Ciongoli, Alito’s former court clerk, told USA Today, “Judge Alito was a shy man, but he was not afraid to deal with controversy because, in my experience, he had a clear sense of right and wrong and knew exactly what his role was. He hasn’t changed; what has really changed is the focus of the debate, and people are gradually putting his philosophy, personality traits, etc., at the center of the debate.”
Newsmax notes that Alito is essentially a legal “textualist” conservative, unwilling to interpret the U.S. Constitution in a way that responds to contemporary views. In a dissenting opinion, Alito wrote: “The written opinion of the full court is like a pirate ship, a ship that flies the flag of textualism but actually represents what Justice Antonin Scalia (the late conservative justice) rejected – the idea that courts should interpret old the text, reflecting the values of contemporary society.”
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