Is That Legal?

Isn't everybody missing the boat here?

What if Alito wasn't a member of CAP? (NOTE: The Washington Post reports today that there is no mention of Alito in CAP files).

It seems quite clear (to me, anyway) that Alito lied on his job application to the Reagan Administration, fictionalizing his past in order to please a prospective employer.

I've never filed for a government job, but isn't it illegal to give misinformation to the government? Aren't there blurbs on government job applications to that effect? And even if there are not, what does falsifying a job appliation say about Alito's integrity -- a quality much touted by Bush and Alito supporters?

I've answered my own question by following the PDF link provided in your post. Providing a false statement in a job application "may be punishable by fine or imprisonment" under 18 USC 1001. (See page 19 of your PDF)

I attended Princeton just after Judge Alito graduated. I have stayed somewhat active in alumni affairs, but my experience is not much different than yours as you described it. Perhaps my recollection could be perceived as average in some sense.

My recollection of CAP and its magazine, Prospect, is that it was a conservative political rag. I do not recall the thrust of the effort to have been one that was anti-women or racist in tone at all. I recall the whole affair as a conservative political response to the perceived liberal atmosphere on campus. I am amazed that so much attention is being paid to this bear of a group that roared for awhile and then went into hibernation, I had thought, never to be heard from again.

I think the real question here is whether Judge Alito is a bigot or a racist or ever was. Nothing but this tenous tie to a truly forgettable organization indicates to me that he is any way guilty of such things.

I think it actually goes further than you suggest. Although my experiences at and after Brown were very different than yours (stayed on to teach for six years, go back regularly for van Dam reunions, and am still in fairly continuous contact with several people there while you apparently just slunk off to law school), I remember my time there very clearly some 35 years later. I think this is true of most people's memories of their time in college, the armed forces, and other periods of their life that were a major break with the past or a major turning point. That phenomenon is probably the origin of terms like "salad days" and "back in the day."

Thanks for linking to the PDF - for all the various references to "Alito bragged" or "happened to mention" it's nice to see the original document.

What does it mean that Alito listed CAP on his '85 application for the OLC position, but not on any other application before or after?

Once he made it into OLC, he'd sufficiently laundered himself so that he didn't need to -- as we here in metro-Atlanta say in deference to a former Notre Dame football coach -- O'Leary himself again.

But so what. For me, only two questions mattered:

"Judge Alito, tell the American people, can the president of the United States ignore a federal law that prohibits domestic spying on US Citizens without a warrant by invoking his powers as commander in chief?"

"Well Judge Alito, since you won't answer my first question, answer this: tell the American people, are there any limits on the president's commander-in-chief powers? If so, what are they? If not, are you saying to the American people, that when a president claims a state of emergency, he is equal to a dictator?"

"So, Judge Alito, since you haven't answered either of my questions, what should the American people think except you support an imperial presidency with no limits on its powers. This is a very sad day for America. I'm glad my grandmother -- whose son died in WWII fighting just this kind of idea -- is not here to hear it."

Why in the name of all that’s holy didn’t the eight Democratic senators get together, figure out the eight most important issues, assign one issue to each senator, do a huge amount of research and preparation, and then have each one drill Alito on that one issue each, with absolutely no blather about the senator’s own position and opinions or faux praise of the general wonderfulness of the nominee? That might have approximated a congressional hearing to evaluate his fitness for the position.

Is there any possible way that we can “re-boot” the national government and parties, start over fresh? The guys we have now just aren’t working out.

As a Princeton graduate alum, I feel it's worth adding that PU spends much more time grooming its undergrads to be future alums than any other institution I have ever had anything to do with (much more, for example, than the Ivy League institution I attended as an undergrad, and much more than the Big XII public university at which I work).

Every undergrad gets a free copy of the alumni magazine -- PAW -- throughout his or her time at Princeton. Seniors get invited to reunions, which take place before graduation. And every class is invited to reunions every year. The alumni infrastructure at Princeton is truly gargantuan. It has to be seen to be believed.

This also helps explain why every Princeton student of the 1980s would have been aware of the doings of CAP, since irate CAP members regularly published letters in the PAW, and regularly attended reunions carrying signs complaining about women being admitted to Princeton.

CAP may have been an all-purpose conservative group, but what everyone at PU knew about CAP is that they decried the arrival of women and minorities at Princeton, and complained about the fact that many legacy cases were -- in their opinion -- not being admitted as a result.

I was a student at Princeton in the 1980s (including in 1985, the year of Alito's DOJ job application), and I know that CAP intended to get attention and succeeded in doing so. As I recall, the entire university community was aroil about CAP's antics. I do not believe that Alito didn't know what CAP espoused at the time, even though he wasn't a student, or that he doesn't remember ever joining the organization.

Alito used CAP membership as a secret handshake, to advertise his bona fides as a real right-winger. The right wing has long specialized in that sort of thing, using coded, misleading, and innocuous-sounding language (right to life? tort reform? how can anyone be against such things?) to fool people while transmitting ideas that very few would buy into if the language were honest.

I just asked a question just like this one at Volokh Conspiracy! I guess I should have come here first.

I'd just like to second the comment by BenA about Princeton's efforts to keep their alumni close and involved. It is absolutely amazing how much they do to keep us aware of what's going on around campus. Every campus organization I ever had even the remotest ties with regularly sends me letters and updates about what they're doing now. Combine that with the yearly trek back for reunions, and it's virtually impossible to be ignorant of campus goings-on. Perhaps if Alito chucked every alumni publication he ever received before reading it he wouldn't have been aware of how CAP was perceived/what it was doing, but I find that unlikely.

This is why senators shouldn't be allowed to handle matters of importance. They screw it up just about every time. Next time get a REAL lawyer to ask the questions. Get REAL investigators to dig up his past. This is the Supreme Court, not the Post Office.

For another perspective from a Princeton alum regarding Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP), please consider Bruce Reed (Princeton '82) writing in Slate about the grumpy old men's club that CAP was, available here.

So you're one of those people who reads in the bathroom?

I've never understood why anybody has time to read in the bathroom. Haven't you people ever heard about fiber?