Previous Politech message: http://www.politechbot.com/2005/11/02/copy-of-judge/ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: RE: [Politech] Copy of Judge Alito's co-authored report on privacy now available [priv] Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 11:00:36 -0500 From: Peter Swire <peter@private> To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan@private> Hi Declan: A few comments on the privacy report from Judge Alito's college days. First, I was in the same major at Princeton as Judge Alito, several years behind him. These "policy conference" reports were emphatically group efforts, usually with negotiation, joint drafting, and the other hallmarks of a group project. The final report provides little evidence of any one participant's views. Second, the hot-button part of the story is this recommendation: "The Conference voted to recommend that the current sodomy laws be changed. The Conference believes that no private sexual act between consenting adults should be forbidden." Note the language "the Conference voted." That is the only indication of voting in the report, suggesting that a minority objected. Also, note that this seems like a proposed legislative change -- vote to change the laws. So there is no indication of a position on the constitutional right of privacy. Overall, the report is an impressive student effort to analyze the issues. Many of its recommendations have become law through the Privacy Act, the Church Commission recommendations, the anti-polygraph law, and so on. The report suggests that Judge Alito studied these issues intensively. It does not tell us what he believed then, or believes now. Peter _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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