Alito breaks with conservatives...already

[slide to the left]

Alito's first vote

In Alito's first vote, he broke with the conservative dissent and granted a stay in an execution case (6-3). Robert's was in the dissent.

While he wasn't the deciding vote, could he maybe not be all that bad?

[cyberia]

1. Let's keep our eyes, ears and minds open.

It's happened before that a judge has changed once he's on the SCOTUS.

[kurth]

2. Do leopards change their spots?

[Totally Committed]

3. Get real.

Every person in the Bush administration, and every appointee of that administration is a monster.

TC

[philosophie_en_rose]

4. I hope this continues.

I'd gladly apologize, if Alito turns out to be a closet liberal.

However, we have to take all of this with a grain of salt. Judges often turn their decisions on very technical matters.

In addition, Alito is Catholic and his opposition of the death penalty is consistent with the teachings of the church. A stay of execution is not a sign that he'll be liberal about reproductive rights or other civil liberties.

[Jon8503]

11. You just said it. Catholic & Opposes death penalty along with the

church. Don't think the apology will be necessary.

What this shows me is his comment about not letting his personal beliefs & religion playing into any of his rulings. Appears to me there is the possibility either one or both of them had some weight in his decision here.

So, if that is the case, his mother's statement about "of course, he is against abortion" should indicate how he will rule when abortion comes into play.

[calico1]

5. Judging by his past record

I am certainly not ready to trust him. He'll have to do more convincing. And I am not holding my breath for that.

[HereSince1628]

6. Don't read too much into this.

Considering the lifetime of the justices we have plenty of time (25-30 years) to determine his real temperment emerge.

[klook]

7. Hell, the murder victim was only a 15-year-old girl

In Alito's universe, girls and women are second-class citizens. Strip-searches of 10-year-old girls, murders of 15-year-old girls, women forced to give birth against their will--apparently these things don't make him lose any sleep at night.

[RandomKoolzip]

8. Yeah....I don't think so.

Conservatives, even Neocons, can make some good decisions at times, but where it counts (Roe, Unitary Executive power, 4th Amendment, you know, the big stuff) Alito's opinions range from the scary to the wrong. Silver linings don't always redeem the looming thunderclouds.

[Sammy Pepys]

9. We should track down the opinion...

...check out the reasoning.

[Bonhomme Richard]

10. Is he anti death penalty?

That would be consistant with his view on abortion.

[slide to the left]

12. Texas voting

It kind of sucks that he will be able to vote on the DeLay voter redistricing. Bushie gave a 35 page friend of the court brief on why it should stay the same.

[karynnj]

13. This case didn't deal with the main issues that

troubled Kerry, Kennedy and others. In some way, this discussion is caused by wanting to put people into boxes. The issue was NOT is Alito a liberal, but what patterns exist that demonstrate his judicial philosophy.

Even if, long run, Alito is shown to NOT believe in the shifts of power that Kerry described, Kerry (and others) weren't wrong to object for these reasons. Alito did nothing publicly to dispel the perception that these were his views. (I would assume that Kerry in private asked Alito about these issues. ) The likelihood is that his beliefs on the issue of the balance of powers between Congress and the President and his beliefs on individual rights are what the Democrats said they were. To my knowledge, no one (on the other side) said that his views WEREN'T as said.

[cyberpj]

14. My guess is it was for show. (See? He's not so bad.........) nt

[slide to the left]

16. I agree

that this is a "look, he's not so bad" situation

[cyberpj]

24. Sure it was. Because his vote didn't make any difference anyway

he could afford to do it.

[Freddie Stubbs]

21. He has not motive for that

Once he is confirmed, he has the job for life.

[cyberpj]

23. The motive is no immediate "I told you so" from his detractors. nt

[Freddie Stubbs]

25. Why should he care?

He now has a job for life.

[cyberpj]

27. He probably doesn't. But this is EXACTLY the kind of PR stuff Rove does

and we all know KKKKarl is still the head PR man for the Bushreich.

[Hosnon]

31. Hmm...or he's just a better judge than this site thought. nt

[cyberpj]

45. Time will tell. nt

[cyberpj]

28. He's building a solid 'base' of non-controversial votes for when he

votes like the coporate and political whore that he truly IS on an important case.

[Vickers]

22. Agreed. Voted "liberal" when the outcome didn't hinge on him.

That was my first thought.

[Hosnon]

30. That makes no sense at all. He doesn't have to cater to anybody.

This is a lifetime appointment. He doesn't have to convince anybody of anything now.

[blm]

35. Anything but his longtime hatred for the left - so playing along with Bush

and his ilk comes EASILY.

[Hosnon]

36. I don't quite understand what you mean. nt

[blm]

37. The strength of the RW movement was forged by PR moves and lots of MONEY.

They create storylines for the media that stick even when the facts run counter to the spin.

It is EXACTLY like them to have planned a move like this to feed the storyline.

If you don't realize that by now....

[Hosnon]

38. But that does not explain why Alito would vote as he did. He is

beholden to nobody now.

[blm]

44. No one but the ideology he forged with these people and SHARES with these

people.

He's pro power - corporate and government, and anti worker and consumer. That is their REAL agenda and they know the social issues are pure show and smoke to get working class people to ignore the creeping fascism.

[Czolgosz]

15. Many self-described "pro-life Catholics" (like Alito) are opposed to both

the death penalty and women’s reproductive self-determination. I don’t see this ruling as a sign of creeping liberalism so much as a sign of Alito’s comfort with allowing his religious beliefs drive the outcome of his judicial decisions. I don’t mean for this to be misinterpreted as anti-Catholic in any way; I’m Catholic, and anti-death penalty, and I favor women’s rights of reproductive self-determination, and so I don’t mean to imply that all Catholics have any uniform views on these issues.

I hope you are correct about the hope of evenhandedness from Alito, but I have read about 50 of his opinions, and they lead me to fear that we have little room for such hope.

Also, I don't believe the death penalty is a conservative issue; it's an authoritarian issue. One can be conservative and be against a racially and economically biased system of public execution which serves neither as a deterrent nor as a cost efficient means of punishment.

[Mass]

17. You can judge somebody on one vote?

We cant know, but my bet is that he may be very bad, even if in this case, I agree with his vote.

I cant believe that so many people try to judge the value of a man on a vote. It does not surprise me that Democrats become heroes or villains depending the day. If you think that because somebody agrees with you on one thing, he will agree on all, you are ready for strong disappointments.

[JDPriestly]

18. Maybe he still has O'Connor's law clerks.

The law clerks have a huge influence. Also maybe he just signed off on an opinion on which O'Connor did most of the work. Wait. I don't think this means anything.

[philosophie_en_rose]

19. That's a great point.

His opinion will be influenced by the law clerks' memoranda. I doubt that he would have replaced her clerks, at least not this quickly.

On the other hand, he didn't write the opinion, did he? All he had to do was attach himself to the dissent or majority. Not much clerking required for that.

[Hosnon]

32. That is called the Greenhouse Effect after one of her law clerks.

The predominantly liberal law clerks have been seen as an explanation for left-drifting by many of the Justices.

[Zinfandel]

20. It's bullshit spin..Alito's vote wouldn't of changed anything, either way!

You don't see it?

It would of been 5-4 if he voted with neo-cons

And it would be 6-3 if he voted with the moderates

They knew what the outcome was going to be, a simple phone call from Scalia or Roberts would let them know what the outcome was going to be...So they could spin it like Alito is a moderate.

Bullshit, Alito's vote didn't make a bit of difference either way!

[Hosnon]

33. And exactly why does he need to spin anything? nt

[Zinfandel]

42. Get fucking real! It's spin without having to publicly spin...You sure as

fuck are buying exactly what the administrations is cuming over, that people view Bush's choice of Alito as a possible moderate, and, "see everyone"....what were those loudmouth Democrats making such a fuss about?

While the media talking heads are mouthing the same bullshit BushCo wants people to hear.

Alito''s right-wing ideology, his past support of the neo-con record & agenda speaks for itself.

This is simply, I like to call, indirect spin!

[Darkhawk32]

26. It's to give Alito's later votes on more controversial matters legitimacy.

[applegrove]

29. How did the other guy vote - the one who replaced Chief Justice?

[blm]

34. Nice PR move by the White House to create the preferred storyline for

the accepting media.

Get real. If you don't know how this WH works by now, then there are a few bridges available to buy.

[bunny planet]

39. Has the ubiquitous Rove all over it. Get the liberals off our backs for

now, have your first decision seem like a reasonably, moderate one, there'll be time for the wingnuttier stuff later once people are watching somewhere else.

I know it seems tfhattie to implicate Rove in everything but he is the 'architect' and I really do think he has his fingers in every piece of the pie.

And yes, I think Alito is that bad, his purpose in being installed is to help to establish the 'unitary executive' and the corporate control of everyone and everything. IMHO

[enough already]

40. It wouldn't surprise me if they staged this Alito vote

Make him look "moderate" so that Bush can easily nominate more nazis and say "Alito isn't bad, you can trust me." Anyone think Rove is beyond something like this?

[rniel]

41. Wouldn't that be a shocker

He turns out to be not such a conservative on the court.

I doubt it, but that would be awesome.

[AX10]

43. Keep an eye on him.

Many law staffers are moderate/liberals. That may influence the Justices. Also, this may be staged in order to give Sam the appearance of being a "moderate".

[sendero]

46. I don't see this vote ..

.. as meaning anything at all. It is as narrow in scope as it could possibly be, affecting one person.

It will take at least a year to gauge what kind of justice Alito will be. We can only hope that he will go out of his way to prove his detractors wrong :)