Contemptible US Politics
In the latest undercover hit job, Lauren Windsor, a progressive activist, posed as an enthusiastic Catholic conservative and secretly recorded her conversations with Justices Alito and Roberts, and even with Mrs. Alito, reports the editors at NRO.
There’s something especially creepy about listening to the recording of Mrs. Alito, the spouse of a public official, casually conversing at a dinner. Mrs. Alito was unaware she was being taped by someone pretending to be a friend, according to the WSJ.
Asks the WSJ editors, is this really how Americans want politics played?
What Happened
Lauren Windsor attended a dinner last week for the Supreme Court Historical Society, where she undertook small talk while pretending to be a diehard religious conservative. The only actual news from her surreptitious recordings is that Justice Samuel Alito’s wife corroborated that he isn’t responsible for whatever flags have flown at his homes.
The sorry truth about our present political moment is that harassment by the left is shrinking the public space in which Justices, or at least conservative Justices, and their families can operate. Protesters brandish signs and pound pots around the Justices’ homes. They follow them to their vacation homes. And now even a dinner for the Supreme Court Historical Society offers no respite from the campaign to intimidate the Justices. It’s contemptible.
When asked by Windsor if the courts couldn’t do anything, Alito finished the conversation:
“We have a very defined role. We need to do what we’re supposed to do, but this is a bigger problem. This is way above us. So I wish I knew the answer. I do.”
Where Are the News Outlets
Except for Wall Street Journal, none of the other mainstream reports included Alito’s perfectly apt description of the Court’s limited role in these debates, continues NRO. Instead, the media leaves readers guessing as to how far Alito’s commitment to promoting godliness goes.
As a matter of constitutional design, Alito is exactly right: In America, the people rule through their institutions.
As for what’s above the pay grade of a Supreme Court justice, that includes God’s job of dispensing the divine grace that would make the country more godly.
