Judge Alito's Academic Enterprise

I'm not sure why this isn't getting more play.

Mr. Leahy said, "I don't know how you do a fair and honest hearing by the end of the year." Adding a new wrinkle to the portrait of Judge Alito's views, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday that as a student at Princeton the judge had written a paper arguing that prohibitions against sodomy should be overturned and "discrimination against homosexuals in hiring should be forbidden."

The same paper, on "the boundaries of privacy in American society," argued for greater restrictions on government searches and surveillance and also recommended the creation of a federal privacy "ombudsman," according to a copy obtained from a Princeton library.

Several conservatives said they did not yet know enough to comment about the paper. Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the White House, said it was "an academic exercise."

An "academic exercise?" A paper arguing for sweeping privacy protections authored by a judge whose opinions betray a clear libertarian bent? Given what poor readers the mouthpieces of the left have revealed themselves to be, I'm not sure why anyone thinks the right is viewing him with any more fidelity to the man he really is, and the justice he'll actually be.

This is the far right's "hand-picked candidate?"[1] I'm just not so sure.

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1. NYT quoting an upcoming advert from People for the American Way.