President Bush has nominated 3rd Circuit Appeals Court Judge Samuel Alito to take the place of retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the United States Supreme Court. This nomination is already shaping up to be a whole different ball game than the last one. Judge Alito appears to have all of the qualities desired by some conservatives who were both for and against the Miers nomination.
• The elite education (Princeton undergrad; Yale JD)
• The paper trail of legal philosophy
• The conservative strain snaking through his decision-making (some might arguably call it a constitutionalist strain)
In fact, Judge Alito is sometimes dubbed ‘Scalito,’ as in Justice Antonin Scalia, and it’s not merely because both men are of Italian descent and a shared birthplace (Trenton, New Jersey).
Of course, the Democrats are girding their loins for battle. Of the newest Supreme Court nominee, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says:
The nomination of Judge Alito requires an especially long, hard look by the Senate because of what happened last week to Harriet Miers. Conservative activists forced Miers to withdraw from consideration for this same Supreme Court seat because she was not radical enough for them. Now the Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people."Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says:"President Bush would leave the Supreme Court looking less like America and more like an old boys club."
This controversial nominee, who would make the court less diverse and far more conservative, will get very careful scrutiny from the Senate and from the American people.Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) says:
Rather than selecting a nominee for the good of the nation and the court, President Bush has picked a nominee whom he hopes will stop the massive hemorrhaging of support on his right wing. This is a nomination based on weakness, not strength.When all the right people are lined up against a nominee, the temptation is to say, “good pick, Mr. President.” But let’s see what a few Republican/conservative bloggers say.
Patterico takes a look at Judge Alito’s lone dissenting opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, concerning a law requiring spousal notification before an abortion. P. opines that Judge Alito’s dissent is an assertion that it isn’t any court’s business to make these types of decisions.
Confirm Them further touts the judge’s qualifications and notes that he is a member of the Federalist Society.
And over at Red State, Pejman Yousefzadeh says that Republican/Conservatives shouldn’t shy away from the fight that the nomination is bound to encourage.
The president called for the confirmation of Judge Alito by the end of the year, in time for January 9, following the holiday break of the SCOTUS term. Good luck.
Is anyone still wondering why the president didn’t pick someone like Judge Alito the last time? I’m not. I still think that he may have been trying to stir up the right side of the fence (at least in the Senate; the stirring up of the conservative general public was likely an unforeseen consequence). I’m betting that it worked, but keep your fingers crossed.
UPDATE: Roundups:
UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein has the Leftist roundup. A sample:
The Chimp bowed down at the altar of Dobson, Bauer, Schlafly, and the rest of the AmTaliban to save his “base” of the wild-eyed Freeper set, nominating Samuel Alito. I’d someone will ask an obvious question—how on earth did Harriet Miers rate ahead of Sammy when the Chimperor was looking down the short list?LOL! That's why I love blogging.
