Alito out of the gate

This clearly is too little to make any long term predictions, but newly minted SCOTUS justice Sam Alito defied expectations during his first day on the job and split with the conservatives on a death penalty case. (Hat tip: Sideshow)

Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., one day after joining the Court, cast his first significant vote on Wednesday evening, and in the process split with the Court's other conservatives: Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Those other three wanted to nullify an Eighth Circuit Court order delaying the execution of a Missouri death row inmate. The state's request to lift that stay order went initially to Alito, who is assigned to handle such emergency matters from the Eighth Circuit. He passed the matter on to his eight colleagues, resulting in the vote to leave the lower court stay in place.

It was my opinion all through these debates that Alito was not going to be as much of a predictable, cut and dried Scalia clone as many were predicting. He may still decide a number of cases in ways that many of you won't care for, but his history seems to indicate that he will study all of the precedents carefully and at least be able to come up with a sound legal basis for the calls he makes.

I don't think Alito was a good choice in most regards, but lets watch him over time. You may stil be surprised if Alito turns out to be his own man.