Passing notes under the bench

According to one of Christian conservative blowhard Dr. James Dobson’s recent radio broadcasts, he received a lovely little thank-you note from new Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, saying “as long as I serve on the Supreme Court, I will keep in mind the trust that has been placed in me.”

As reported by the New York Times, Alito wrote, "I would also greatly appreciate it if you would convey my appreciation to the good people from all parts of the country who wrote to tell me that they were praying for me and for my family.”

And while it’s no Brownie “fashion god” e-mail or Harriet Miers “you’re the best governor ever” belated birthday card to George W. Bush, that’s making some people a little uneasy–both because it hints at complicity in some religious conservative agenda, and because it suggests our newest Justice may be both inarticulate and unaware of the fact that he is supposed to remain an apolitical, secular figure in performing his job.

But, as usual, that seems a bit alarmist.

Sending thank-you notes after judicial confirmations is relatively common, but Stephen Gillers, a law professor and ethics expert at New York University, said the note's wording was surprisingly ambiguous for a letter from a Supreme Court justice.

"It is inartful, it is clumsy, it is a poor choice of language, it is unfortunate, but I think we have to give Justice Alito the benefit of the doubt," Professor Gillers said.

Indeed, this isn’t even dramatic. Maybe I could see an uproar if the note had said something like: “Thanks for mobalizing you're fundamentalist nutjobs in my support, I’ll get right to work on returning the faver by enshrineing our faith in civic institutions, my great and wise ideologicel and spiritual leader. Your the coolest, we’ll have to go catch – I mean, picket - ‘Brokeback Mountain’ sometime. Jesus 4ever! BFF, Sam.”

Oh, that pained me.