Toobin corrected error regarding Alito position in search case

Written by Sam Gill

Published

CNN's Jeffrey Toobin corrected a previous misstatement that Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. was in the majority of the Doe v. Groody decision, a 2003 case involving the physical and visual search of a 10-year-old girl. In fact, Alito dissented in the case, while the majority ruled that the search went beyond the scope of the warrant, in violation of the Fourth Amendment.


During CNN's special coverage of Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s confirmation hearing, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin corrected his previous misstatement concerning Alito's opinion in a 2003 case involving the physical and visual search of a 10-year-old girl, a mistake Media Matters for America noted. On January 10, Toobin had wrongly asserted that Alito was in the majority of the Doe v. Groody decision. In fact, Alito dissented in the case, while the majority ruled that when police officers searched the 10-year-old girl and her mother during the execution of a search warrant on their house, they went beyond the scope of the warrant, in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

From CNN's January 11 coverage of the Alito hearing during a special edition of The Situation Room, which featured host Wolf Blitzer:

TOOBIN: Speaking of our qualifications, I'd just like to raise something. Yesterday, I said that Judge Alito was part of the majority in the decision about searching the 10-year-old girl and  he was, in fact, a dissenter in that case. And the blogs and the emailers were after me and they were right and I was wrong. And that was just, yet another nail in my coffin for being a Supreme Court justice.

BLITZER: We're only human; we all make mistakes from time to time.

TOOBIN: I know, but I just wanted to correct it.

BLITZER: It's nice of you to admit that.

TOOBIN: And I just thought we should do that.