Via the WaPo version of the transcript from yesterday’s hearings we have an extended excerpt that contains what seems to be the biggest sound bite from Alito’s opening statement:
When I became a judge, I stopped being a practicing attorney. And that was a big change in role.The role of a practicing attorney is to achieve a desirable result for the client in the particular case at hand. But a judge can’t think that way. A judge can’t have any agenda, a judge can’t have any preferred outcome in any particular case and a judge certainly doesn’t have a client.
The judge’s only obligation — and it’s a solemn obligation — is to the rule of law. And what that means is that in every single case, the judge has to do what the law requires.
I must confess, this is the type of thing that I like to hear from a nominee. However, that isn’t what struck me about this passage from his statement. I interpreted it as being a clear attempt to obviate the criticisms about his letters and memos from his time working in the Justice Department–where he had a client, the government of the United States. I suspect that the tactic won’t work vis-à-vis the Democrats on the panel (certainly not in terms of Senators Schumer and Kennedy), but I find the attempt at preemption to be interesting.
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