Circuit Judge Samuel Alito withstood a second day of 'grueling' hearings before the US Senate Judiciary Committee, hearings that exemplified the "delicate" manner in which all constitutional questions are handled in Washington.

In this sound file from "Against the Grain", Gardner Goldsmith discusses the non-answers offered on important issues the hearings covered. One wonders why hearings need be held if no answers about general constitutional theory will be answered, but addressed instead with claims that one cannot comment on cases that may be "heard before the court". Even if they were to be the specific cases that might be heard before the court, the committee members have the right to ask questions pertaining to the cases, and Alito can answer them. But the answers are not forthcoming, even when specific cases are not mentioned, but only abstract, hypothetical situations brought to mind.

In this opening of the program, Goldsmith comments on the latest teenager gone wrong, and then dives into the Alito controversy. Listen carefully to the manner with which Senator Lindsay Graham comported himself. Lindsay needs to find another career.