In all of the attention being brought to Alito’s comments that the Washington Times found and Drudge splashed, remember that his comments pre-dated Casey. Whether or not that has any real bearing on the issue, I’m not sure at the moment as I haven’t had much chance to focus on it, but it seemed worth noting.

Prof Bainbridge does think it’s important:

it’s critical to recognize that the 1985 memorandum pre-dates the SCOTUS’ decision in Casey, which changed the legal landscape considerably by strengthening the argument that Roe is a settled precedent buttressed by considerations of stare decisis. Alito’s reported decisions and statements indicate that he is not an activist bent on overturning precedent willy-nilly. His track record suggests he will be guided by precedent, influenced by stare decisis, and therefore cautious.

*** UPDATE: ***

And if you didn’t catch Dean’s MTP appearance, check out this disingenous quote (via RCP).

This could be a defining moment. Judge Alito is a hard-working man, a good family man, but his opinions are well outside the mainstream of American public opinion. He condones a strip-search of a 10-year-old when the police had no such warrant or indication to do so.

He is obviously referring to Doe v. Groody, but it is clearly apparent (yes, I know that’s pleonastic), that Dean is either clueless or deceptive (though I’m not necessarily making the case those two are mutually exclusive). Or maybe he just isn’t reading Myopic Zeal as much as he should be. As we noted back in early November, from Powerline:

Groody was a lawsuit by two “Jane Doe” plaintiffs against four police officers. The plaintiffs claimed that they were illegally searched by the officers, and asked for money damages. The officers moved for summary judgment, arguing that the search did not violate any clearly established constitutional rights. By a two-to-one vote, the 3rd Circuit panel upheld the trial court’s denial of the officers’ motion to dismiss the case. Alito was the dissenter.

The case arose out of the execution of a search warrant on a meth house. In the affidavit that the officers submitted to obtain the warrant, they noted that when drug dealers see that they are being raided, they commonly hide drugs on the persons of whoever may also be on the premises, hoping that the search warrant won’t allow the officers to search them. So, in this case, the officers requested permission to search anyone they found on the premises, not just the drug dealer who was the target of the raid.

Dr. Dean is well outside of the mainstream, it seems.

UPDATE: Here is his job app from 1985 (via PoliPundit, who reminds us that it doesn’t matter, the numbers are there for confirmation)