US. Supreme Court, International Law, and Crimes Against Humanity

Francis A. Boyle is a leading American professor, practitioner and advocate of international law. He was responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, the American implementing legislation for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. He served on the Board of Directors of Amnesty International (1988-1992), and represented Bosnia- Herzegovina at the World Court . Professor Boyle teaches international law at the University of Illinois , Champaign . He holds a Doctor of Law Magna Cum Laude as well as a Ph.D. in Political Science, both from Harvard University .

Interview with Professor Boyle was conducted Friday 12 January 2006

Shahram Vahdany - I know your time is limited so I'll go directly to these questions, why not Alito? What's the difference between him and other conservative justices?

Francis A. Boyle - Well, he is a right wing extremist. He's just like Scalia, Thomas, Roberts; all four are members of the Federalist's society, which is right wing, bigoted, racist, reactionary, war mongering and totalitarian. These people want to return the united States Supreme Court back to before the days of Franklin Roosevelt and the new deal to the Supreme Court of Herbert Hoover. That's how extreme they are.

SV - If Alito gets confirmed, what would be the shape of the Supreme Court in respect to what it is at this moment?

FB - Under the current court, large numbers of extremely important decisions were decided by a five to four majority. That fifth vote to constitute the majority provided by Justice O'Connor, she was the swing vote on many important decisions and what will happen now, with Alito is that the Supreme Court will swing in the other direction and indeed they might proceed to revisit many of the five/four votes that had come down with O'Connor on the court. So, those votes could easily start to slip the other way, even in cases that have already been presented. Well, not the cases themselves but on different issues.

SV - The American Bar Association, which many believe it is a liberal association, has endorsed Alito's nomination. What is your take on that?