ROBERT PARRY
“With the fate of the U.S. Constitution in the balance, it’s hard to believe there’s no senator prepared to filibuster Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, whose theories on the ‘unitary executive’ could spell the end of the American democratic Republic,” ConsortiumNews.com editor Parry writes in a recent article, “Alito Filibuster: It Only Takes One.”

Parry adds: “Alito’s theory of the ‘unitary executive’ holds that Bush can cite his ‘plenary’ — or unlimited — powers as Commander in Chief to ignore laws he doesn’t like, spy on citizens without warrants, imprison citizens without charges, authorize torture, order assassinations, and invade other countries at his own discretion.” While at the Associated Press and Newsweek, Parry broke much of the Iran-Contra scandal. His most recent book is Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq.
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PAUL ROGAT LOEB
Loeb has written a series of articles on the filibuster option including “Alito’s Clear and Present Danger” and “Filibustering Evasion.” He is author of the book Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time and the editor of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear.
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FRANCIS BOYLE
Professor of law at the University of Illinois, Boyle said today: “Alito is an extremist. Any judge who refuses to declare that an innocent person has a constitutional right to be free from execution is by definition an extremist. … If confirmed by the Senate, Alito will join Scalia, Thomas and Roberts to form a solid block of four Federalist Society justices. … We need only one U.S. Senator with courage, integrity, principles and a safe seat in order to start the filibuster.”

JOHN BERG
Professor and director of the graduate program in Professional Politics at Suffolk University in Boston, Berg is author of Unequal Struggle: Class, Gender, Race and Power in the U.S. Congress. He said today: “The American system of checks and balances works imperfectly — but it only works at all when there is some degree of balance. An Alito confirmation would put all the institutions of the federal government under the control of one party, at a time when more and more policy decisions are driven by partisanship.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167