[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 144 (Thursday, November 3, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H9611]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SUPPORT FOR ALITO NOMINATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Schwarz of Michigan). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Speaker, these are historic and great days 
in America because President George W. Bush has nominated Judge Samuel 
Alito to the United States Supreme Court.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a man of outstanding character and one who has 
more experience as a sitting judge than any nominee for the Supreme 
Court in the last 70 years. As always, extremists on the left are 
viciously attacking this highly qualified nominee because he shares a 
judicial philosophy with this duly elected President.
  Mr. Speaker, what is at stake here with these judicial nominations is 
the Constitution itself, that miraculous document by which we guard our 
God-given rights in this country; and what is also at risk is keeping 
secure the American dream for future generations.
  In this day, we sometimes forget that the American dream is actually 
about human dignity and freedom and self-governance. It is not about 
the left's moral relativism, which means that those without conscience 
have a license to do anything without consequence, regardless of its 
harm to others.
  True freedom actually means having a system of self-government that 
protects the rights of innocent people to live and to be free and to 
pursue their dreams in their own way, as long as they do not desecrate 
the lives and rights of others. The choice that faces us in these 
pivotal times is whether or not we as a people are still capable of 
understanding and guarding the fundamental rights that undergird our 
freedom.
  Mr. Speaker, I have great hope that we still are. Liberal activists 
on the courts have been undermining the Constitution and America's 
fundamental rights of liberty and life and property for decades.
  Just yesterday, the liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, 
``There is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider 
of information regarding sexual matters to their children. Parents have 
no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of 
public schools as to the information to which their children will be 
exposed while enrolled as students.''
  Mr. Speaker, for these liberal judges to say that parents have no 
right to determine what their children are taught about sex, or 
anything else, for that matter, is outrageous. America has rejected 
this sort of bankrupt, liberal extremism at the ballot, and now the 
left is desperately trying to hold on to the courts to force this 
extremist agenda down the throats of all Americans.
  The liberal, secular left wants to take the words ``under God'' out 
of the Pledge of Allegiance. They want to completely dismantle marriage 
and family. They want to end voluntary prayer, any kind of traditional 
voluntary religious expression in public places.
  They teach your children in school that it is ``mainstream'' in 
America to use abortion and even partial-birth abortion as a means of 
birth control. They are saying to the parents of America that if your 
underage daughter is impregnated by a man, he should be able to take 
her to have an abortion without your knowledge or permission, that it 
is none of your business.
  Mr. Speaker, those attacking Judge Alito are so far to the left that 
they cannot even see the majority of us here in America, and it is so 
important that the people of this country understand what the left 
means when they say ``mainstream'' when they say that Judge Alito is 
out of the mainstream. They are talking about his rulings in cases 
where the overwhelming majority of Americans agree with him. That is 
the very definition of ``mainstream.''
  Mr. Speaker, for the sake of this Republic, we must invite those 
leftists who insist on smearing Judge Alito's reputation to step into 
open debate where the bright light of truth can shine on their ideology 
and expose to the people of America exactly how far out of the 
mainstream they really are.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for this debate. It is long overdue. The 
future of the American people living in freedom depends on it.

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