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July 3, 2008

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget (TOUCHING!)

Jeff Jacoby: Israel still paying for its defeat

JWisdom:: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part IV by Rabbi David Aaron

July 2, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Appeasers Make Poor Patriots

The Kosher Gourmet By Kathleen Purvis: Slaw, y'all: For BBQs or Sabbath dinner, these southern recipes are something else!

JWisdom:: Rabbi Mordechai Becher: Jewish Rx for A Simpler Life

July 1, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. I think it's important to leave a legacy to my children. How much should I save towards this end?

Paul Greenberg:A President who is history deficient?

JWisdom:: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Poland's Unique Antisemitism

June 30, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: Remembering the architect of Torah Judaism for the modern world

Abe Novick: Hulk: Still a Jew?

JWisdom: : Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality, Part 2: The Abandoned Child

June 26, 2008

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Quantum leap to evil

Caroline B. Glick: Victimized families must not be allowed to dictate policy

June 25, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Today in Biblical History: King Jeroboam of Israel prevents pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Jonathan Tobin: Real Friends and Real Enemies

JWisdom: Raping of reason By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 25, 2008

Steven Emerson: Kristof: Never Mind the Terrorists

Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: Mediterranean Flyover: Telegraphing an Israeli Punch?

JWisdom: Rabbi David Aaron: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part III

June 24, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: What were they thinking!?

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Guilty knowledge

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Warping Innocence

June 23, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Diploma dilemma

Jeff Jacoby: A world without children

JWisdom: Rabbi Dovid Gross: Putting the Spirit Back into Spirituality --- Introduction

June 20, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Man: The Crowning Glory of Creation

Caroline B. Glick: Israel's darkest week

JWisdom: We aren't worthy? by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 19, 2008

Rabbi Elazar Meisels: The saints who don't come marchin' in

Chris Christoff: Muslim woman demands an apology from Obama after camera snub

June 18, 2008

Jonathan Tobin: Still Dancing Around Jerusalem

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Chilled fruit and vegetable soups

JWisdom: Souls Need A Check Up? by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 17, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: Baby Einstein

Caroline B. Glick: Bush's rhetoric, Bush's policies

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part II by Rabbi David Aaron

June 16, 2008

Varda Branfman: Bob Dylan, won't you please come home?

Diana West: Academic dares to question the 'religion of peace'

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Positive Backfire

June 13, 2008

Rabbi Berel Wein: Trading manna for whine

Caroline B. Glick: Peace with friends

JWisdom: From the mouths of … by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 12, 2008

Michael Feldberg: Meet Paul Revere's pal, the Orthodox Jew who played a key role in laying Boston's cultural and business infrastructure

The Kosher Gourmet by Kathy Manweiler: No need to be tempted by Wendy's mandarin chicken salad

JWisdom: Re-Jew-venating prayer, Part I by Rabbi David Aaron

June 11, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: What would Hillel say?

Jonathan Tobin: UNRWA and NGOs: The Real U.N. 'Insult'

JWisdom: Sara Yoheved Rigler: Greatness Made Simple: How a momentary decision shifted life's course and destination

June 6, 2008

Rabbi Pinchas Stolper: Revelation: The basis of faith

Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Mere hours after becoming Israel's new 'best friend' Obama backtracks on status of Jerusalem

Caroline B. Glick: UN choosing to protect rogue nuclear programs

JWisdom: Sameness in difference by Rabbi Sroy Levitansky

June 5, 2008

David Lightman: Now Obama wants to be Israel's newest 'best friend'

Obama's remarks to AIPAC policy conference

The Kosher Gourmet By Ethel G. Hofman: Shavous cuisine: Ruby Fruit Soup, Lokshen Kugel with Cheese, Key Lime Curd, Calsone Casserole Frittata with Wild Mushrooms, Sun-dried tomatoes and Olives, Baked Tilapia with Pepper Cheese Cream and Brown Sugar Shortbread

JWisdom: Why a Jewish Jerusalem makes so many nervous by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 4, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: A different sort of 'religious broadcaster'

Jonathan Tobin: Misgivings on the Road to Damascus

JWisdom: 44 Years Without An Argument? by Sara Yoheved Rigler

June 3, 2008

Daniel Pipes: Obama vs. McCain on the Middle East

Everything's Relative: There is a crisis growing in Orthodox synagogues worldwide, reveals Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel

JWisdom: White Facades; Black Secrets by Rabbi Mordechai Becher

June 2, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q: Lie to outsmart discriminator?

He writes the songs that make our souls sing:Gavriel Aryeh Sanders interviews Jewish music legend Ben Zion Shenker; includes stirring, uplifting song

JWisdom: Holocaust in the Perspective of Faith by Rabbi Nosson Scherman: Of laws and lives

March 22, 2007

J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Dec. 6, 2005 /5 Kislev, 5766

The Alito Memos

By David Limbaugh


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Today, Republican judicial nominees must engage in a distasteful cat-and-mouse charade whereby they are badgered to repent from any past blasphemies in which they contradicted liberal church doctrine on abortion.


Speaking of such blasphemies, two 1985 memos are said to be the twin barrels of the smoking gun that prove Judge Alito to be an irredeemable enemy of women's sacred rights. One involved his application for a position with the attorney general in which he reportedly expressed pride in contributing to legal arguments for the Reagan administration such as "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."


The second is a memo he wrote as a lawyer in the U.S. Solicitor General's Office in a certain abortion case where he discussed "this opportunity to advance the goals of bringing about the eventual overruling of Roe v. Wade and, in the meantime, of mitigating its effects."


The discovery of these writings immediately placed Alito in the doghouse. How dare a Supreme Court nominee have had the audacity to suggest that a case that even many liberal legal scholars recognize as poor constitutional law is poor constitutional law and ought to be overturned?


These revelations nudged liberal Sen. Specter toward convulsions. Specter indicated he would ask Alito to answer a number of questions in writing, presumably giving him a chance to express contrition for such breaches of postmodern etiquette and properly distance himself from those past sins.


The White House convinced Specter to meet with Alito instead and publicly report his responses. According to Specter, in the first memo, Alito was merely expressing a "personal opinion, [which] would not be a factor in his judicial decision." In the second, "he was writing as an advocate; that his role as a judge would be different."


These explanations aren't satisfying liberal groups, which is entirely predictable, since they're apparently impervious to the concept that a judge can separate his personal or political views from his rulings and dispassionately interpret the Constitution. (You know how it works: Thieves think everybody steals, Bill Clinton thinks everybody lies, liberal judicial activists think every judge is an activist.)


Accordingly, they are convinced Alito's presumed personal opposition to abortion dictated his vote (by way of dissenting opinion) in Casey v. Planned Parenthood to uphold a state statute requiring a married woman to inform her husband before having an abortion. It couldn't possibly be that he believed the law required him to uphold the statute.


I have no doubt Alito was telling the truth about both memos. His statement that the role of a legal advocate is different from that of a judge is inarguable. He was writing as an advocate, and that is no less true if his actual legal opinion happened to be consistent with his advocacy position. It is also true, liberal cynicism aside, that a Constitution-respecting judge truly strives to (and does) separate his personal views from his decision making.


But based on today's unwritten rules that only inscrutable, stealth nominees need apply, I suppose Judge Alito would be foolish to volunteer his personal opinion (if it is his opinion) that abortion is morally wrong, or his personal legal opinion (if it is his opinion), that Roe was wrongly decided.


The problem is that if Alito answers the questions more explicitly, such as saying, "I believed then, consistent with my advocacy memos, that Roe was wrongly decided, and I still believe so today," he might be coming too close to telegraphing how he would rule in a future case. He can't possibly know in what context the issue may later come before the Court. He would also be giving the pro-abortion-litmus-test Left an excuse to filibuster his nomination. He has no choice, then, but to answer the way he did.


There is also the possibility, as has been suggested, that he believed in 1985 that Roe was wrongly decided, but that its presence in our jurisprudence for 20 more years weighs heavily against overturning it in 2005. Even judges who fashion themselves strict constructionists regrettably sometimes believe that longstanding Supreme Court decisions, even if erroneous when entered, should rarely be overturned.


Concerning Roe, liberals have a ray of hope with both Justice Roberts and Judge Alito. They both doubtlessly believe or at least believed at one time, personally and professionally, that the case was wrongly decided. But it is far from clear that either would overturn Roe today — though I pray they would — given their professed reverence for Supreme Court precedent and their reluctance to overturn even wrongly established precedent.


It's a sad state of affairs that liberal activist nominees, who are sure to uphold bad law, like Roe, when it suits their policy objectives, will breeze through the confirmation process absent a character or competence issue, but most Constitution-respecting ones will have a very difficult time. But in politics, double standards abound.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

David Limbaugh, a columnist and attorney practicing in Cape Girardeau, Mo., is the author of, most recently, "Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) Comment by clicking here.

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