Alito Splits With Conservatives on First Ruling
Posted on February 2, 2006
Several bloggers are talking about Alito’s first ruling.
New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the court’s conservatives Wednesday night, refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection.
Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members in turning down Missouri’s last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.
The respectable AJ Strata, who was with me about not jumping the gun over Miers needs to take a deep breath today.
This is the Kennedy-Souter mistake where you let people like Bill Kristol dupe the party into believing they, and only they, know what a ‘true conservative’ is. I was not happy with the way elitists and talking heads pilloried Miers and her supporters without having a chance to hear her statements. I was on the fence - but I have no idea what Miers represented
But it was clear there was a lot of BS involved. Alito is a good man and will be a good justice. He just will not be what the conservative base was told he would be. Be prepared to be disappointed. I always am when I listen to Kristol and Frum.
AJ may be right, but I think it is way too early to be judging Mr. Alito. I suggest not jumping the gun like many did over Miers. He is a new Justice, and a lot was put on his shoulders with a life or death judgement on his first day. I respect his decision to be cautious with a matter of such magnitude.
Taylor was convicted of killing 15-year-old Ann Harrison, who was waiting for a school bus when he and an accomplice kidnapped her in 1989. Taylor pleaded guilty and said he was high on crack cocaine at the time.
Taylor’s legal team had pursued two challenges — claiming that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment and that his constitutional rights were violated by a system tilted against black defendants.
The court, acting without Alito, rejected Taylor’s appeal that argued that Missouri’s death penalty system is racist. Taylor is black and his victim was white. He filed the appeal on Tuesday, the day that Alito was confirmed by the Senate.
What??? The man was black? And Alito sided to be cautious on killing him? But, Kennedy said he was a racist bigot! Expose the Left also talks about the overreaction of Kennedy and his cohorts. I say to the Conservative base, don’t overreact on this in the opposite direction. This was his first case, and not nearly enough to make a good judgement on. Hey, this guy is in there…for LIFETIME appointment….We put him there. Don’t judge this guy as the new Kennendy-Souter mistake, at least not yet. To do that is nothing more than knee jerk judgement. Give him a chance.
Update: AJ reconsiders his initial reaction.
After reading some of the posts on this subject and the point made Alito was possibly not up on the details of the case (though most people in his position should be breifed and reviewing case documents for pending actions like this - or better yet abstain) I want to make clear that I am not judging Alito on this one action. But, I stand by my original concerns that he has been oversold to conservatives.
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Jay,
Good points and I have this morning tried to moderate my position in an update. In fact when looking at the fact other cases are stayed waiting a decision on lethal injection looks like Alito was right.
I am more than willing to admit I am wrong on this one!
Cheers, AJStrata
Yeah, some of us already knew that was going to happen. But I’m not worried yet. Its one opinion out of many to come.
Wasn’t that a shock? Justice Alito’s very first case and he sides with the liberals. After having heard all the Democrats’ “doom and gloom” conniptions about him, I couldn’t help laughing.
Of course, even if Justice Alito had gone the other way, Mr. Taylor’s stay of execution would have still been upheld. It just would have been 5-4, instead of 6-3.
Either way, it is going to be most interesting to follow that case as it could potentially spell the end to capital punishment in America.
Samuel Alito may turn out to be as surprising a justice as Sandra Day O’Connor, who was originally believed to hold very conservative views when she was appointed by Mr. Reagan back in the 1980s.
After all the posturing, hand-wringing and wailing over him, Justice Alito may just turn out to be the new “swing” vote on the high court.
As a purple moderate (I am and have always been non-partisan), I find this prospect deliciously ironic because it would be a nice firm “I told you so” for red and blue partisans alike. You can’t really “stack” the high court, although many have tried.
As you already well know, Supreme Court justices are not elected, but appointed for life. Once confirmed, they don’t owe anybody — liberal, conservative or whatever else there may be — anything and, unlike the executive and the legislative branches, they don’t have to worry about their popularity or getting re-elected.
Personally, I am reserving judgment until I see more of Justice Alito’s future decisions. After all, one ruling does not a record make — but that one is still, nonetheless, a real head-scratcher.
I have not seen the reason given for Alito’s decision to side with the majority. The death penalty and the lengthy appeals process involved has been a delicate issue for years and has proponents and detractors on both sides of the political spectrum.
Until we know more, it is too soon to jump to conclusions.
Before we all go out and buy our “Souterito” t-shirts, has anyone considered the possiblity that he’s trying to build some pro-life street cred?
Justice Alito has already been confirmed by the Senate, Bullgator, he doesn’t need to build any sort of “street cred” with any group of any political persuasion or ideology.
He doesn’t owe anybody any favors, which is the principal reason why that branch of our government is appointed for life rather than elected to a limited term of office.
But, I think you’re right, we should probably wait on those “Souterito” t-shirts. After all, it’s only Justice Alito’s first ruling.
Rush mentioned on his show today that Justice Alito said during his hearings that if 4 members wanted to review a death penalty case, he sided with them out of judicial courtesy so as not to have a 5-4 decision since someone’s life was on the line.
“After all, one ruling does not a record make — but that one is still, nonetheless, a real head-scratcher.”
Why is it that, no one considered the fact that it was his first day on the job?
He had not time to properly review the case of a person facing death.
Had he ruled the other way, how many would be saying he ruled too quickly on a case he knew nothing about?
An interesting hypothesis, loboinok.
Maybe Justice Alito was erring on the side of caution with regard to the facts of the case, not the issue of capital punishment itself.
Had Justice Alito, who was reputed to hold very conservative views, ruled the other way, it wouldn’t have been at all surprising and we’d likely be debating the merits of the death penalty, instead of speculating whatever it is that might be going on inside Justice Alito’s mind.