February 2, 2006
alito's First Action
I'll admit to raising an eyebrow a bit when I saw this:
Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.Granted that one vote does not a career or trend make but if you listened closely to a lot of the folks who opposed alito you'd almost think he was carrying a scythe himself.
I'll be interested to read the reaction at Talkleft which had quite a few posts reporting on alito and the death penalty.
There's more at Scotusblog.
Via Gary Farber.
Posted by Steve on February 2, 2006
