Via the AP: Senate Confirms Alito to Supreme Court
The Senate voted 58-42 to confirm Alito _ a former federal appellate judge, U.S. attorney, and conservative lawyer for the Reagan administration from New Jersey _ as the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who has been a moderate swing vote on the court.All but one of the Senate’s majority Republicans voted for his confirmation, while all but four of the Democrats voted against Alito.
That is the smallest number of senators in the president’s opposing party to support a Supreme Court justice in modern history
In other words, no big surprises.
My guess is that we are entering a period of time where these votes will be more like this one than in previous years (like when Scalia was confirmed 99-0). There is more political gain for the opposition to vote “no” than there is in voting “yes”–it pleases the base and potential donors. I am not of the opinion that this is reflective solely of Alito’s judicial philosophy, as again, Scalia sailed through and he was known to be quite conservative at that time.
Stephen Bainbridge reactios here and celebrates the Coalition of the Chillin’ in the process (of which, btw, I am a member).
January 31st, 2024 at 11:27 am
Scalia, whose views I dislike, but he at least has a mind of his own unlike Thomas who just follows Scalia. Nominees were once able to sail through during a time when administrations did not have to create a gap between parties to get elected. The current white house gang thrives on confrontation and divisiveness, which will hurt this country for years as others try to seek a middle ground.
January 31st, 2024 at 11:30 am
In all fairness, Thomas doesn’t actually just follow Scalia. Thomas is, for example, far less interested in precedent. His judicial philosophy is actually somewhat different from Scalia’s. Having said that, I would agree that Scalia is the more impressive of the two in terms of intellect and such.
And also to be fair–I don’t think it is just the current occupants of the WH who thrive on divisiveness in the current political climate.
January 31st, 2024 at 1:55 pm
A win and a disaster averted
Congratulations to Justice Alito.
January 31st, 2024 at 6:44 pm
A-L-I-T-O
Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. is the 110th Supreme Court justice, after the Senate confirmed his nomination with 58 favorable votes (every Republican except one) against 42 (every Democrat except four). Yesterday a filibustering attempt by the left wing o…