Alito Confirmed

This is the way I would line up the justices:

Conservative: Scalia, Thomas, Alito

Liberal: Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, Souter, Kennedy*

Swing: Roberts, Kennedy* (at best, from a conservative perspective)

 

Oh and for those of you who lament these liberal GOP picks while insenuating that GWB is part of the grand conspiracy... it is very likely that those liberal picks were compromises by former GOP presidents to keep the "balance" on the court as it was. The Dems controlled the Senate except for 2 years up until the 90's. Even now it isn't strongly conservative.

Reagan probably had to appoint a "moderate" in order to get a "conservative" through the opposition. Same with Bush 1 and Ford... though neither were genuine conservatives to begin with.

 

One more justice is needed to reverse the idiotic eminent domain decision.

Should we continue to fall one justice short, be prepared to have your church building seized one day, and handed to a developer who promises local officials a greater tax base.

 

This vote, to me is far more interesting than the confirmation vote.

Kennedy and Kerry now have a lot of egg on their face by confirming they are the obstructionists Republicans have been saying they are.

Their efforts to abrogate their advise and consent constitutional role in favor of partisan politics have failed. This failed attempt will be used against many democrats come election time.

Pretty dumb move.

 

Scott,

he has cited international precedence, ruled against state sodomy laws, ruled against property rights, etc.

Thanks, Scott. I had forgotten about the foreign precedent and Kelo cases. Not much of a conservative or even swing voter, is he?

 

carpro,

Pretty dumb move.

I'm not that optimistic. Massachusetts voters keep returning them both to the Senate.

And yes, those are interesting numbers. But there are two possible explanations, it seems to me: (1) that they (the Dems in favor of cloture) geuninely favored an up or down vote or (2) that they were afraid of the nuclear option.

 

Yippeee, I am so happy too, have been and am praying for he and his family!!

 

Dumb move for the party as a whole.

Massachussetts voters have been far to the left of mainstream for decades.

 

carpro,

Dumb move for the party as a whole.

I hope you're right. I fear it won't matter to the voters.

 

Along the same lines:

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/62585.htm

SUICIDE OF THE DEMS:
KERRY'S FLOPIBUSTER

By DEBORAH ORIN

EXCERPT

January 31, 2006 -- THE joke in Republican circles now is that if John Kerry didn't exist, Karl Rove would have to invent him.
Republicans loved 2004 loser Kerry's flop of a filibuster against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito because it had Democrats tearing each other's eyes out — over a fight they couldn't win.

Not only did Kerry lose, he lost big time — just 25 Democrats were willing to join him as the party split apart over Alito, just as it has ripped apart over the Iraq war.

The vote was 72-25 against filibuster, so Team Kerry lost 3-1.

 

BTW, for my lib friends out there who are anxious that the balance on the Court has shifted, if my line-up above is correct, one more conservative would restore some much needed balance. If Roberts turns out to be conservative, then another conservative would simply shift the balance away from the liberal tilt the court has had for several years.

As a correction, though, for the sake of fairness, I will note that Kennedy did write the dissent which Rehnquist joined in Stenberg v. Carhart, the decision which struck down Nebraska's partial birth abortion statute.

 

I have lots of problems with various policies of President Bush but I give him kudos for picking Roberts and Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court and getting these two moderate originalists confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

 

I think Bush made 2 excellent choices. Maybe we will see a turning around of the court.

 

BTW, I just noticed, watching a "re-run" of the State of the Union, that Justices Breyer and Thomas were there, along with C J Roberts and Justice Alito. I was impressed that both "wings" of the Court were represented in welcoming the Court's new Justices.

 

I honestly believe God had his hand on the confirmation.. How else would you explain the miracle of Senator Byrd voting to confirm him.

I watched Byrd's statements last Thursday and thought to my self, "Who are you and what did you do to Robert Byrd?"

He actually tried to pass himself off as conservative.

Anyway, for Byrd to vote for a Bush appointee was a miracle!

 

I honestly believe God had his hand on the confirmation.. How else would you explain the miracle of Senator Byrd voting to confirm him.

I watched Byrd's statements last Thursday and thought to my self, "Who are you and what did you do to Robert Byrd?"

He actually tried to pass himself off as conservative.

Anyway, for Byrd to vote for a Bush appointee was a miracle! </font>[/QUOTE]He is up for re-election and it is not a sure thing this time.

Joseph Botwinick

 

Yeah you're probably right.
But it was kinda comical watching him pretend he is a conservative.

He knows that WV IS a conservative state.

 

Maybe a little. O'Connor freguently took conservative positions but sometimes did not.

I believe it's going to take one more Constitutionally oriented conservative to actually turn the court around completely.

 

O'Connor took positions without regard to political position. That means sometimes the decision was favored by liberals, sometimes by conservatives, sometimes by both, sometimes by neither.

But regardless of who's on the bench, their decisions should be based on the law, and only the law; not on political partisanship, not on personal or religious view, and not on popular opinion. While I personally believe that Constitutional constructionism tends to be a conservative position, I certainly do not want to see conservative activist judges on the bench any more than I want to see liberal activist judges on the bench. Judicial activism is wrong, no regadless of the political ideology.

 

3-page warning: This thread will be closed no sooner than 11:00 p.m. ET by one of the moderators.

Lady Eagle,
Moderator