Alito and CAP

Samuel Alito, President Bush's US Supreme Court nominee once belonged to an organisation created to oppose the entry of women students to Princeton University.

" The animating force behind the alumni revolt at Princeton was the university's decision in January 1969 to admit women. Within four weeks, a conservative group calling itself the Alumni Committee to Involve Itself Now (ACTION) was founded. After its spirited attempt to block the admission of women failed, ACTION was succeeded in 1972 by CAP...

Alito's supporters have claimed that his declaration of membership in CAP 20 years ago is irrelevant to assessing whether he should be appointed to the Supreme Court. But would they say the same of a nominee to the Court who at age 35 had highlighted his membership in an organization that was on record as favoring the imposition of quotas limiting the number of Jews? And if a liberal nominee for the Supreme Court had belonged to a left-wing organization (e.g. Students for a Democratic Society) and touted it in an application for a job in the federal government, would it not be appropriate for the Senate to scrutinize this?

By the mid-1980s, having failed in its effort to restore the Princeton of old, CAP had become increasingly shrill...

Why, then, in late 1985 — 13 years after CAP was founded — would the mild-mannered Samuel Alito tout his membership in such an organization as he sought the job of Deputy Assistant Attorney General...

In all likelihood, Alito — who was by all accounts a marginal and inactive member of CAP — highlighted his membership in the organization for the most prosaic of reasons: he thought that it would signal to the movement conservatives who controlled appointments in the Justice Department that he shared their values and was a member of their network. Alito was not wrong, and in late 1985 — shortly after Prospect published what turned out to be its last issue — he received the promotion that helped place him on the path to the Supreme Court."