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Politics : View from the Center and Left

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To: Dale Baker who wrote (9606)1/24/2006 3:37:07 AM
From: stockman_scott   of 541624
 
Tipping the Scales
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The New Yorker
Issue of 2006-01-23 and 30
Posted 2006-01-23

This week in the magazine and online, Jeffrey Toobin writes about Samuel Alito, Jr., who is likely to be confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Here, with Ben Greenman, Toobin discusses Alito and the Court.

newyorker.com

<<... This has been cast as a swing-vote hearing, since Alito will be replacing O’Connor. Is there any way to measure his effect on the swing? How does his conservativeness compare to O’Connor’s liberalness, or to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s?

The question is what kind of conservative Alito is—moderate like O’Connor and Kennedy or extreme like Scalia and Thomas. I think the hearings suggested that he is closer to Scalia and Thomas, but Alito’s reticence made any clear judgment about him nearly impossible.

Did any interesting personal information about Alito come out during the hearings?

What surprised me is how little the White House did to humanize Alito. As one of his clerks told me recently, he is a nerd. That’s certainly the picture he gave at the hearings. He is a baseball fan, and went to a Philadelphia Phillies fantasy camp a few years ago. That’s about as colorful as it gets.

What now? Is there any chance of another opening on the Court during Bush’s Presidency?

There is always a chance. John Paul Stevens is eighty-five; Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seventy-two. Three others are in their late sixties. People get sick at these ages. But my sense is that the only way there will be further departures before 2008 is if there is an unexpected illness. Most people expected Rehnquist and O’Connor to leave this term. Any more departures would be a surprise...>>
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