Senators Grill Alito on Membership and Involvement in Discriminatory Group

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: You have no memory of being a member. You graduated from Princeton in 1972, the same year C.A.P. was founded. You call C.A.P. a conservative alumni group. It also published a publication called Prospect, which includes articles by C.A.P. members about the policies that the organization promoted. You're familiar with that?

JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO: I don't recall seeing the magazine. I might have seen it at some point.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: Did you know they had a magazine?

JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO: I've learned of that in recent weeks.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: So in 1983 Prospect essay titled “In Defense of Elitism” stated, quote, "People nowadays just don't seem to know their place. Everywhere one turns Blacks and Hispanics are demanding jobs simply because they're Black and Hispanic. The physically handicap are trying to gain equal representation in professional sports, and homosexuals are demanding that government vouchsafe them the right to bear children." Did you read that, that article?

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Finish the last line.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: Finish the last line -- is, "and homosexuals are –”

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: No. "And now, here come women."

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: If the senator would let me just --

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Yes, I will.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: Can I get two more minutes from my friend perhaps? Just to continue along -- I apologize, Judge -- did you read this article?

JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO: I feel confident that I didn't. If I -- if that -- I’m not familiar with the article. And I don't know the context in which those things were said. But they are antithetical to --

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: But could you think of any context that they could be --

JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO: It’s hard to imagine. If that's what anybody was endorsing, I disagree with all of that. I would never endorse it. I never have endorsed it. Had I thought that that's what this organization stood for, I would never associate myself with it in any way.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: The June ‘84 edition of Prospect magazine contains a short article on AIDS. I know that we've come a long way since then in our understanding of the disease, but even for that time the insensitivity of statements in this article are breathtaking. It announces that a team of doctors has found that AIDS virus in the rhesus monkeys was similar to the virus occurring in human beings. The article then goes on with this terrible statement: "Now the scientists must find humans, or rather homosexuals, to submit themselves to experimental treatment. Perhaps the gay Princeton’s Gay Alliance may want to hold an election." You didn't read that article?

JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO: I feel confident that I didn't, Senator, because I would not have anything to do with statements of that nature.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: In 1973, a year after you graduated and during your first year at Yale Law School, former senator, Bill Bradley, very publicly disassociated himself with C.A.P. because of its rightwing views and unsupported allegations about the university. His letter of resignation was published in the Prospect, garnered much attention on campus and among the alumni. Were you aware at the time of that at the time you listed the organization in your application?

JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO: I don't think I was aware of that until recent weeks, when I was informed of it.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: And in 1974, an alumni panel, including now Senator Frist, unanimously concluded that C.A.P. had presented a distorted, narrow, hostile view of the university. Were you aware of that at the time of the job application?

JUDGE SAMUEL ALITO: I was not aware of that until very recently.

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/12/1459218