As we noted on Friday, the Democrats put out a press release containing the absurd claim that Judge Sam Alito once joined an organization of Princeton alumni that opposed the university’s admission of minority students. Now the Associated Press has republished the Dems’ claim as a news story:
In the second day of Senate hearings, Alito faced tough questions about his decisions during 15 years on an appeals court, his writings on wiretaps and his membership in a college organization opposed to the admission of women and minorities.
As we’ve said before, the decision to admit women to previously all-male colleges was controversial, but minorities have been admitted to Princeton for many years, and the suggestion that Alito or anyone else opposed such admission is a ridiculous slur. Later on, the AP repeats the claim in a form that is only slightly more plausible:
In a 1985 application for a job in the Reagan Justice Department, Alito cited his membership in the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, a conservative alumni group known for its opposition to opening the school to women and bringing in more minorities.
Presumably what CAP opposed was not “bringing in more minorities,” but affirmative action; i.e., significantly relaxing admission standards for minority applicants. Such affirmative action was controversial in the 1970s and remains controversial today. To suggest that this is equivalent to “opposing the admission of minorities” is such a patent error that it is hard to see how it can be inadvertent, on the part of either the Democrats or the AP.
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