To my knowledge, no Senator asked Judge Alito a question
about campaign
finance. Is this accurate? Also, does anyone recall whether (or the
extent to which) the Senators asked Chief Justice Roberts about
campaign
finance at his hearings?
If the correct answer is that campaign finance did not surface in the
questioning of either new Justice (and assuming that Judge Alito is
confirmed), does anyone have a view whether the absence of this topic
at
the hearings will have either a conscious or subconscious impact on
either Justice's consideration of the pending cases (assuming, again,
that Justice Alito is able to sit on the Vermont case)? Another way
to ask this question might be: if the Senators don't care about this
topic -- in comparison to abortion, presidential power, even
one-person-one-vote, etc. -- then would these Justices be more
psychologically presupposed to invalidate campaign finance legislation
they considered constitutionally problematic (and less psychologically
presupposed to defer to Congress on this topic)?
Ned
Edward B. Foley
Director, Election Law @ Moritz, and
Robert M. Duncan/Jones Day Designated Professor of Law
The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law
phone: (614) 292-4288; e-mail: foley.33@osu.edu
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/