Antis Quick to Tag Alito ‘Machinegun Sam’
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Almost before the press conference was finished, anti-gunners at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence were harping about President George Bush’s nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Their beef: Alito’s 1996 dissent to a Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that upheld the authority of Congress to ban machineguns. That case, US v. Rybar, found Alito rejecting the majority opinion that Congress can use its Interstate Commerce powers to prohibit the possession of machineguns manufactured after May 1986.
That was the explanation by legal scholar David Kopel in remarks circulated on the Internet as Bush was announcing the Alito nomination. Kopel told Gun Week in a telephone interview that he is “cautiously optimistic” about the nomination, and he expects that after a bitter partisan fight on Capitol Hill, Alito will be sworn in to replace O’Connor.
That does not appear to bring smiles to the faces of the Brady camp. They issued a blistering press release that left no mystery about their disdain, sneeringly nicknaming the nominee “Machinegun Sammy.” It was better, perhaps, than the slur attached to Alito’s name and politics when he was nicknamed “Scalito”—a reference to his alleged philosophical similarity to Justice Antonin Scalia—by some senators and members of the press. That nickname brought a rebuke from the National Italian American Foundation, which asked for an apology.
“Earth to Sammy—who needs legal machineguns?” demanded Jim Brady, chair of the Brady Campaign. “The Chicago mobsters of the 1930s would be giddy. But the man I worked for, who gave us Sandra Day O’Connor and signed the 1986 machinegun ban, would be shaking his head.”
“Judge Alito’s ludicrous machinegun decision is bad enough,” added Michael D. Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign. “But it also indicates that a Justice Alito would attempt to prevent Congress from passing other laws to protect Americans from gun violence. If Judge Alito had his way, the federal machinegun ban would have been struck down as unconstitutional, and the private possession of these weapons would have become legal.”
Joining in the anger, though not necessarily targeting Alito’s gun ruling, were perennial anti-gunners Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA).
“Rather than selecting a nominee for the good of the nation and the court, President Bush has picked a nominee whom he hopes will stop the massive hemorrhaging of support on his right wing,” Kennedy stated. “This is a nomination based on weakness, not strength.”
Added Schumer: “It is sad that the President felt he had to pick a nominee likely to divide America instead of choosing a nominee in the mold of Sandra Day O’Connor, who would unify us. This controversial nominee, who would make the court less diverse and far more conservative, will get very careful scrutiny from the Senate and from the American people.”
Reacting to Schumer’s vehement opposition to Alito, Kopel quipped to Gun Week, “That’s always a good sign.”
Aside from dissenting on the machinegun ruling, Alito has demonstrated strong support for the First Amendment. In July of last year, Alito wrote that a law banning alcohol advertising in student newspapers was unconstitutional. That law, passed by the Pennsylvania Liquor Code in 1996, violated the First Amendment rights of The Pitt News, a student newspaper at the University of Pittsburgh.
Alito is widely considered a conservative who has remained stalwart despite his presence on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Philadelphia.
His machinegun dissent notwithstanding, gun rights activists might not be ready to jump behind the 55-year-old jurist’s nomination because of his background. Alito is a native of Trenton, NJ, and he spent three years as the US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, a rabidly anti-gun state, so he comes from an environment in which placing restrictions on gun ownership is commonplace.
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