Why All Decent, God-Fearing Americans Must Support Alito

Here is the script of a new Committee for Justice commercial:

In 1990, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Samuel Alito to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Today, liberal groups led by People for the American Way oppose Judge Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. Their agenda is clear.

They want to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance and are fighting to redefine traditional marriage. They support partial birth abortion, sanction the burning of the American flag, and even oppose pornography filters on public library computers.

Do these groups represent you? If not, call your Senators. Tell them to support Judge Alito.

One way of interpreting this ad is that we should support Alito because his opponents are atheistic, unpatriotic, perverted baby murderers. But it also implies that Alito would reject an Establishment Clause challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance, uphold federal attempts to dictate state marriage laws and to ban certain abortion methods, and reject First Amendment challenges to filtering software in public libraries and bans on flag burning. Assuming Alito actually holds these positions, most of them count against him as far as I'm concerned. The mention of flag burning is especially puzzling, inasmuch as Antonin Scalia, one of two models President Bush supposedly had in mind when he picked Alito, agrees that flag burning is protected by the First Amendment.