This Alito guy is an interesting case:
• In February, Alito wrote an opinion that reopened the case of a black murder defendant in Pennsylvania because the prosecutor had removed 13 of 14 blacks from the jury pool. This strongly suggests racial bias had infected the trial, Alito said.
• Last fall, overturning a federal judge, Alito ordered a school district to allow an emotionally troubled New Jersey boy to transfer from a school where he was harassed by "bullies" who called him fat and "queer" and threw rocks at him outside class. Alito said school officials had ignored the effect of "the severe and prolonged harassment" on the young man.
• In April, he spoke for the appeals court in reopening the asylum request of a Chinese woman who showed evidence she had been forced to have an abortion before fleeing China.
• In September, Alito ruled for public housing tenants in Philadelphia who said officials had violated their contract by raising their gas rates during the year.
Doesn't sound like the lowest common denominator conservatism of the Limbaugh/Delay/Dobson crowd. Everyone who worked for him seems to agree that he is no ideologue. So is the LCDC crowd all hopped up simply because he is not pro-choice in his personal leanings? If abortion is the driving issue of politics as professional wrestling in America, what will people do when technology eventually makes it a moot point?
addendum: A Washington Post editorial points out that Alito's abortion rulings are not as simple to read as simpletons on both sides of the debate would like to claim.
...Judge Alito's record on abortion is more complicated than the caricatures would suggest. His opinions imply a discomfort with legal abortion and suggest that he may be more willing than Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to uphold restrictions on abortion. But his writings also reflect an effort to diligently apply Supreme Court precedent in a changing and controversial area of law. They offer no definitive word as to how he would vote on whether to overrule Roe if presented with an opportunity.
