Alito Leans Right Where O'Connor Swung Left (WaPo)

[jefferson_dem]

Alito Leans Right Where O'Connor Swung Left

By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 1, 2005; A01

In 1991, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. voted to uphold a Pennsylvania statute that would have required at least some married women to notify their husbands before getting an abortion; a year later, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor cast a decisive fifth vote at the Supreme Court to strike it down.

In 2000, Alito ruled that a federal law requiring time off for family and medical emergencies could not be used to sue state employers for damages; three years later, O'Connor was part of a Supreme Court majority that said it could.

And last year, Alito upheld the death sentence of a convicted Pennsylvania murderer, ruling that his defense lawyers had performed up to the constitutionally required minimum standard. When the case reached the Supreme Court, O'Connor cast a fifth vote to reverse Alito.

The record is clear: On some of the most contentious issues that came before the high court, Alito has been to the right of the centrist swing voter he would replace. As a result, legal analysts across the spectrum saw the Alito appointment yesterday as a bid by President Bush to tilt the court, currently evenly divided between left and right, in a conservative direction.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/31/AR2005103101865_pf.html

[NashVegas]

1. O'Connor NEVER Swung "Left"

Mainstream. But never left.

[bowens43]

2. Alito would have to move left to 'lean right'.

[htuttle]

3. O'Conner did not swing left

She was just pro-choice. That's it. On every issue, she voted as I'd expect a moderate Republican to vote, though she was as corporatist as the rest of them on economic issues.

[barb162]

6. yeah, I tend to agree. But even her being right center seems almost

left these days.

[whatever4]

4. Isn't it funny that for all this

he's only got two kids.

Don't ask me why, it just strikes me funny. Seems like a guy like him would have his wife barefoot and pregnant more often. It's what he believes in, after all, being a good neocon, right? He HAS to agree with that agenda, right? But I guess he doesn't live by it. ha. Only two kids? Why, you birth-control-using, woman liberating SCUMBAG! Large families, we're all supposed to have large families. What are you, selfish??

[xultar]

5. I hope ya'll can see that the WaPo is helping push the fight...to keep

Dems focus and the rest of America off PlameGate.

Watch out. They wanted this distraction. We need to make sure that the Dems in the senate don't let this rush through without taking the focus off the PlameGate affair.

KKKarl Rove distraction points are in full effect people!

[Democat]

7. They are trying to move the center to the far right

When someone is a moderate, they are now far left. When they are far right they are just "conservative", not extreme.

The media continues to push the lie that someone like Hillary is far left and Bush is near the middle.