My take on Alito:

[trof]

(I know you've all been waiting for this pronouncement with bated breath)
;-)

It's just a gut feeling, and I've donned my Nomex underwear.

A little background:
I watched the Bork hearings and the Thomas hearings.
IMHO neither one was a good choice for the supreme court.

Alito comes across as a decent guy.
I really think he could be another Souter.
I was living in NH when Judge Souter was nominated by George H.W. Bush.
I watched that nomination and hearing with great interest.
I thought he would be another right-wing idealogue.
Boy, were we all wrong, including George the First.

I just have this feeling that Alito will be in the same mold.
Like I said, just gut.
It's all a crapshoot anyway, I guess.
:shrug:

[AndyTiedye]

1. Everything In His Record Suggests Otherwise

[AX10]

2. Alito's record is very controversial.

Alito is NO David Souter.

[unblock]

3. i think he would provide some surprises

i agree that he's actually NOT your typical scalia clone.
he would come up with some -- a few -- decisions that would surprise and please lefties.

on the other hand, he would also come out with plenty more than a few that would shock the living SH*T out of more lefties.
hell, i think he might even scare scalia on a few decisions!

[RufusEarl]

4. Alito

I would bet that if you and I sat down to discuss politics we would be in agreement on most matters, but i have a different gut feeling about Alito. Of course like you it's just a gut feeling, I also have a gut feeling he's going to be confirmed. so i hope your correct, and he turns out be like Souter.

[trof]

7. I agree.

Yeah, I think he's in, for good or ill.
Welcome to DU.
:hi:

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. jr selected him. On that basis alone I have to believe that he is

no good.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Anyone who said in an interview that he thought Bork was the greatest

Jurist of his age ain't gonna come up with any pleasant surprises for THIS group!!!!

Heard the interview on the radio. He did it for a local NJ TV station back a few years.

http://supreme-court.toptensources.com/TopTenSources/Default.aspx

Transcript: 1988 Alito Comments on Bork Nomination ... Alito was interviewed on Front Page New Jersey, a public affairs television program of NJN News, ...


Here are the details of the interview

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010800528.html?nav=rss_nation/special

[lumpy]

8. He has either poor or selective

memory (re.Cap membership). Dodges specific questions, no opinion on Fla. Gore/Bush Supreme Court fiasco (feigns ignorance of super case). Resists poltical root canals. Stupid like a fox. Tight-ass wife.

[beaconess]

9. Alito is no Souter

Prior to becoming a Supreme Court Justice,

1. Souter did not publicly and frequently express anti-civil rights views.
2. Souter was not an eager and blatantly partisan member of the Reagan Administration who devoted himself to dismantling civil rights measures.
3. Souter did not have a record of ruling time after time after time against civil rights victims.
4. Souter did not approach the law as an intellectual exercise with no apparent understanding of how the law impacted real people.
5. Souter didn't belong to any racist organizations, brag about it in order to get a promotion and then claim to have no recollection of any connection to the group.
6. Souter did not call affirmative action "quotas."
7. Souter never equated affirmative action with "moving the fences in" for Hank Aaron.

and so on and so on and so on.

[Mitt Chovick]

10. Souter was AG for the most conservative governor in the last 50 years

in New Hampshire. Most conservative governor anywhere in the last 50 years.

Among other things as AG he argued for

Keepin pre-Roe abortion restictions just in case Roe was reversed.
Continuing to lower the flag to half mast on Good Friday.
And many many more....

What's the lesson here?

Never judge a lawyer by his client.

I say this as one who is scared shitless by Alito

[beaconess]

11. Agree

The difference is that Alito's record is full of proof that his personal views of Constitutional interpretation are far outside of the mainstream. If it were simply a matter of him arguing on behalf of a client, that would be different. But Alito was drawn to the Reagan Administration precisely because he agreed with - in fact was all over - the Reagan philosophy and regularly and publicly stated that he was a true believer.

Souter had a balanced record at the time of his nomination. Unlike Souter, Alito is a right wing ideologue who allows his personal views to drive his decision-making.

[IndianaGreen]

12. Alito is an Opus Dei ideologue just like Scalia and Thomas

We already have 5 Catholics on SCOTUS, assuming Alito is confirmed, 3 of which are members of the Opus Dei cult. The Court is totally out of balance!

[radio4progressives]

16. Worse than that IG - He was the Legal Counsel during Iran Contra Secret

Government - Ollie North's and the NSA's plans to shut down the government etc etc etc... you know the history right?

link to the whole business posted in the feingold thread - that's why this guy cannot be confirmed --- absolutely cannot be allowed to sit on SCOTUS.

[HeatherDawn]

13. Unitary Executive

Unitary Executive Theory

During the Alito hearing the term "Unitary Executive" was mentioned and it prompted me to research the term. The Bush administration contends this theory (and it is a theory) is what gives the President absolute power and the ability to disregard laws enacted by Congress and to operate without any judical oversight. I urge everyone to visit this link and absorb the underlying doctrine of the Bush administration.

http://www.users.muohio.edu

Samuel Alito in a 2001 appearance before the conservative Federalist Society, he said he continued to believe in the idea of the "unitary executive." That concept holds that the Constitution gives the president all federal executive power, and means Congress likely could not grant agency heads powers outside the president's reach.

[HeatherDawn]

14. Link Correction

Sorry my link regarding Unitary Executive was incomplete. Here is the whole link

http://www.users.muohio.edu/kelleycs/paper.pdf

[Czolgosz]

15. Nice dream, but no one who's read Alito's decisions would mistake him for

Souter. That's not an opinion or speculation: with Souter sitting, the Supreme Court has literally reviewed and reversed several Alito decisions and -- in every single case without even one exception -- Souter was well to the center of far-right Alito. It isn't an exaggeration to describe Alito as a worst case scenario; there are probably only a half dozen more extremist choices among all the federal judges in all the courts in America.

Sorry there isn't better news to report.