Justus For All

New York Times:

Samuel A. Alito has been a strong conservative jurist on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a court with a reputation for being among the nation’s most liberal.

Dubbed ‘Scalito’ or ‘Scalia-lite,’ a play not only on his name but his opinions, Alito, 55, brings a hefty legal resume that belies his age. He has served on the federal appeals court for 15 years since President George H.W. Bush nominated him in 1990.

Before that Alito was U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1987 to 1990, where his first assistant was a lawyer by the name of Michael Chertoff, now the Homeland Security secretary.

Alito was the deputy assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration from 1985 to 1987 and assistant to the solicitor general from 1981 to 1985.

Some people have wondered if the Miers nomination was a fake out from the beginning, whose main purpose was to ensure that ‘the base’ and therefore the Republican Senators were fired up enough to actually confirm a conservative judge.

I still doubt that, but the Alito nomination gives some weight to that premise.

From what I can tell of my first looking over of Alito, he is not an ‘originalist,’ and despite his nickname, much more like Roberts than like Scalia. I will also note that he has White House expirience, which may well mean a favorable view of executive power which I still think is Bush’s first priority.

I can here liberals all over the country wishing for Miers right now though….