PUBLIC MARKS with tags libertarians & government

Most debate about Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has focused on his propensity to vote to overrule Roe v. Wade and the similarity between him and conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. But despite the superficial parallels between the two conservative, Italian-American Catholic jurists, it is important to recognize that Alito has a substantial libertarian dimension to his jurisprudence as well as a conservative one. In several key fields of law, he is more likely than Scalia and other conservatives to be skeptical of assertions of government power. More important, there is much in his record that should appeal to libertarians and -- to a lesser extent -- even left-wing liberals.

The entire gay marriage debate, intensified by the California legislature's approval of a bill granting licenses for homosexual marriages and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to veto it, misses the big picture. The real question is: Why is government licensing marriages in the first place?