FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  
Contact: Damion Nielsen 
Phone: (202) 378-3605 
Date: January 17, 2010 

On Saturday, January 16, 2010, congressional candidate Frank Scaturro took part in a program at the Roosevelt Public Library commemorating the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  A visiting professor at Hofstra Law School who teaches and has written about civil rights, Scaturro addressed those gathered for the program about the sacrifice many have made for rights too often taken for granted today.  “As we often say in the context of battlefield sacrifice, freedom is not free.  The same is true of those who gave their lives in the struggle for civil rights, a number that included Dr. King – who died a violent death that contrasted with the principle of nonviolence to which he dedicated his life.” Scaturro noted that the voices of many members of the generation that led the Civil Rights Movement “have been silenced by time” and that “it is for us, the living, to preserve the memories of these great figures and great deeds as we each try in our own modest way to make the dream come true.” 

The commemoration included remarks by a number of elected officials and other dignitaries, and was highlighted by a keynote speech delivered by Rev. Dr. Herbert Daughtry, Sr.

Justice Samuel Alito has been unfairly criticized by several legislators, as well as by media commentators, following his reaction to a surprising rebuke to the Supreme Court delivered during the State of the Union Address.  The rebuke, directed at the majority of the Court that issued the recent Citizens United campaign finance decision, was a surprise not only because of the venue in which it was delivered, but also because it mischaracterized that decision as “revers[ing] a century of law.” 

The reaction caught by the cameras was so subdued that it strains credulity to suggest that the Justice was trying to do anything remotely distracting or disruptive.  That did not stop Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Ted Kaufman (D-DE) from pointedly accusing Justice Alito of acting inappropriately.  Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) went as far as to single out Justice Alito in a floor speech with a snide attack on the Justice for supposedly going back on his testimony during his nomination hearings about the limited role of judges.  Sen. Leahy proceeded to make the same mischaracterization of Citizens United as the State of the Union Address with an uninformed reference to “100 years of the Supreme Court’s own precedents.”

There is a century-old federal statute that prohibits direct contributions to campaigns by corporations, but the Court’s decision did not touch that.  It struck down a more controversial 1947 provision banning independent expenditures by corporations and labor unions.  That provision only became law over the veto of President Harry Truman, who warned that the ban was “a dangerous intrusion on free speech.”  In cases that arose during the 1940’s and 1950’s, Justices Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, Frank Murphy, Wiley Rutledge, and Chief Justice Earl Warren reached the same conclusion that the Court would in Citizens United. Although a majority of the Court did not decide the issue back then, no one would consider those names of the past—all considered liberals in their time—to be pawns of corporations. Regardless of whether you ultimately agree with their conclusion, the justices who joined the recent decision deserve credit for taking seriously the weighty free speech considerations involved in the case.

As a constitutional law counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee who worked on Justice Alito’s nomination, I was glad to see the nomination prevail over bitter party-line opposition, but disturbed by the tactics used against him.  Before and after his nomination, Justice Alito has consistently displayed the decorum and respect that was sadly denied him by opponents of his nomination when he faced the Senate.  He did not deserve this latest round of demagoguery, particularly from the body that handled his nomination.

Note: Frank Scaturro, currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School, served as Counsel for the Constitution on the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2005 to 2009.  He is a candidate for the United States House of Representatives in New York’s 4th Congressional District.

by Bradley Blakeman - FOXNews.com - May 17, 2010

An obvious target for the GOP in fashioning a comeback would be a seat that they recently held­namely, those lost in the Democratic surges of 2006 and 2008. In the last two election cycles, Democrats scored a net gain of 55 House seats consolidating their grip in the Northeast, while expanding their beachheads in the nation's heartland. Most of their gains were made in three distinct parts of the country the Republican-leaning South, the increasingly competitive Mountain West, and the battleground states of the industrial Midwest.

As a result, these newly minted Democratic seats are in large part in competitive, even difficult, terrain. Roughly three-fourths of the districts (42) voted Republican for president in at least one of the last two elections. Twenty-one districts voted for the GOP presidential candidate in both 2004 and 2008.

Polling today more than suggests that members of Congress face the most anti-incumbent electorate since 1994. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC poll, less than one-third of all voters say they are inclined to support their current representatives this November.

I believe that what has many Americans so upset, is the fact that the Democrats -- who control all branches of government with high majorities -- have not concentrated on what most Americans care about most, i.e., the economy, jobs and the rising debt. Since taking power in 2009, Democrats have focused almost entirely on health care reform and increased government spending and deficits. Americans kept asking themselves, "What good is affordable health care, if I do not have a job to pay for it?"

The American people will send a message this November. It will say to politicians, listen to the people and be responsive to our needs. The American people will send a strong and clear message that elected officials are sent to serve the people not the other way around.

Bradley A. Blakeman served as deputy assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001-04. He is currently a professor of Politics and Public Policy at Georgetown University and a frequent contributor to the Fox Forum.

NEW HYDE PARK, NY - Frank Scaturro, Republican candidate for United States Congress (NY-4), takes issue with a recent statement from Rep. Carolyn McCarthy.  In response to the recent instigation and provocation against Israel on the flotilla heading towards Hamas-held territory in Gaza, Rep. McCarthy said, "I want to express my deepest condolences to the families that lost loved ones, and my thoughts remain with those that were wounded and are still being treated..." 

Scaturro responds, “To talk about the results of instigation without acknowledgment of the instigators is to ignore the entire moral dimension of what transpired.  With every shred of evidence indicating that this flotilla intentionally sought a confrontation with Israel, ignoring orders to dock at Ashdod for cargo inspection, the so-called ‘peace activists’ aboard beat and savagely attacked Israeli troops who boarded the ship.  Rep. McCarthy's sympathy seems focused on one side: that of the attackers.  In a week that saw an international maelstrom of condemnation against the Jewish state, the congresswoman should have expressed solidarity with Israel and that no matter how hard Israel's enemies try, they will never succeed at delegitimizing that nation and their right to self-defense.”