Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Judge Samuel Alito, for Sainthood, or the Supreme Court ??
The ANNOTICO Report
The More I Read about Sam Alito, the more I think he should
be put up for Sainthood, rather than the Supreme Court!!!! :)
A Prosecutor Known for His Common Sense and Straightforward
Style
New York Times
By Daniel J. Wakin
November 2, 2005
...The trial... revealed what many say were the hallmarks
of his stewardship of the office: modesty, a straightforward style, common
sense and, in baseball jargon, good pitch selection.
"I thought it was courageous," Mr. Lustberg said of Mr.
Alito's decision to handle the matter personally. "Here he was, a guy who
was an appellate lawyer. But he understood he was in charge of an office
full of trial lawyers."
..Mr. Alito was not a grandstander. He often seemed shy,...
and his news conferences were understated. His self-effacing air was in
sharp contrast to the rough-and-tumble federal courthouse in Newark, where
mobsters, prosecutors and lawyers mingled in the marbled hallways.
Morale was high in the office..., with Mr. Alito's hard
work, lack of a political agenda and modesty setting the tone.
Even.. his courtroom [conduct].... was, at heart, extremely
practical."That's him. Not trying to do anything fancy or in any way make
up a creative, clever argument," "He simply invited them to do what made
common sense to the rest of us."
Many who know Mr. Alito said he was more dedicated to
the law than to garnering attention.
"Alito was a government guy, and you never got the feeling
he was out there pursuing his ambitions,"...
"As a prosecutor he was nonideological. He tacked toward
the conservative side, because people who go into federal law enforcement
tend to be on the right side of the line."
...[the] United States attorney's office is full
of aggressive courtroom fighters. "Sam was much more reflective, and someone
who has always reveled in the complex nuances of the law rather than the
drama in the courtroom,"And while Mr. Alito could appear aloof, some defense
lawyers recalled him as accessible.
"He basically had an open-door policy," "Things
could be discussed in that office." ... public defenders ..were... allowed
to lobby for lesser charges against defendants several times....
Mr. Alito was aggressively loyal to those who worked
for him.
Decisions Offer Clues to Court Pick's View of Divisive
Issues
New York Times
November 2, 2005
Adam Liptak
....One distinct theme emerges from an examination of
15 cases decided by Judge Samuel A, Alito Jr. involving abortion:
his thinking is shaped by a traditional concept of marriage.
.....The word "abortion" appears in 22 decisions in which
Judge Alito participated in his 15 years on the United States Court of
Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia, according to searches of
legal databases. But seven of those references are passing ones. In the
remaining 15 cases, questions about abortion played an important role.
(Eight of those 15 involved "Immigration ASYLUM Abortion cases"), leaving
seven.
The decisions are not easy to categorize. Judge Alito
voted in support of the abortion rights side of the argument in three cases,
apart from Casey, that most directly presented questions about the legal
status of abortion and of restrictions on it.
In 1997, he joined a decision applying the Supreme Court's
1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right
to abortion, to uphold a New Jersey law that let parents sue on behalf
of deceased children but not stillborn fetuses.
In 2000, he joined a decision applying Stenberg v. Carhart
- another 2000 decision that struck down a Nebraska law that banned
a procedure its critics call partial-birth abortion - to a similar New
Jersey law.
In both cases, though, Judge Alito wrote separate concurrences,
carefully calibrating his language and reasoning to set out no more than
he wanted to say. In the 1997 decision, for instance, he wrote to fine-tune
and limit some of the language in the majority's decision.
"I think that the court's suggestion that there could
be 'human beings' who are not 'constitutional persons' is unfortunate,"
Judge Alito wrote. "I agree with the essential point that the court is
making: that the Supreme Court has held that a fetus is not a 'person'
within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. However, the reference to constitutional
nonpersons, taken out of context, is capable of misuse."
In 1995, he cast the deciding vote in a 2-to-1 decision
striking down parts of a Pennsylvania law that restricted abortion. The
law, the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act, included a provision that required
a doctor's certification in cases in which a publicly funded abortion was
being performed because the woman's life was said to be in danger.
The certification had to be signed by a doctor other
than the one about to perform the abortion and without a financial interest
in it. Judge Alito joined the majority decision written by Judge Robert
E. Cowen striking down the certification requirement and a second restriction
because they conflicted with federal Medicaid regulations....
It is nonetheless Judge Alito's 1991 dissent in Casey
that has attracted the most interest, partly because the case went on to
become the vehicle for the Supreme Court's reaffirmation of Roe v. Wade
in 1992.
Eight of Judge Alito's abortion decisions arose in immigration
cases involving Chinese nationals seeking asylum in the United States.
Alito Is Seen as a Methodical Jurist With a Clear
Record
New York Times
By Neil Scott and Scott Shane
November 1, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 - One weekend in 1986, two young
lawyers working for Samuel A. Alito Jr., then a deputy assistant attorney
general in the Justice Department, faced a looming deadline for a legal
analysis and realized they would have to work all night to get it done.
"In the legal world, most bosses would say, 'This is
what I want on my desk in the morning,' " said John F. Manning, one of
the lawyers. "Sam stayed with us. He went out and got pizza and he pulled
the all-nighter with us. I've never seen anything like that before or since."
Throughout his life ...- the self-effacing Judge Alito,
...has made his mark with quiet dedication rather than showy display. He
has cloaked his formidable intellect in modesty, an attribute both surprising
and endearing to colleagues in high-octane legal circles.
...Judge Alito, 55, has built a reputation for decency....Larry
Lustberg, a former federal prosecutor who has known Judge Alito for 22
years, called him "totally capable, brilliant and nice."...
Judge Alito's jurisprudence has been methodical, cautious,
respectful of precedent and solidly conservative, legal scholars said.
In cases involving the great issues of the day - abortion, the death penalty
and the separation of church and state - Judge Alito has typically taken
the conservative side.
Yet he has not flaunted his political views inside or
outside the courthouse. Friends say Judge Alito seems to have inherited
a distaste for shows of ideology from his father, an Italian immigrant
who became research director for the New Jersey Legislature and had to
rigorously avoid partisanship.
Judge Alito won prestigious academic prizes while at
Princeton and Yale Law School, where he stood out for his conservative
views, which were in the minority, as well as for his civility in engaging
ideological opponents.
"The notion that he's an extreme conservative is wrong,"
said Mark Dwyer, Judge Alito's fellow student at Princeton and roommate
at Yale. "Sam is conservative because he's a straightforward believer in
judicial restraint - that is, a judge's personal views should not dictate
the outcome of the case."
Even in the Reagan Justice Department,..."I never got
the sense that he thought about legal issues in an ideological way," said
Mr. Manning, now a professor at Harvard Law School.
Walter F. Murphy, an emeritus professor at Princeton
who supervised Judge Alito's undergraduate thesis on the Italian Constitutional
Court and has kept up with him in the years since, said his former student
believed in ruling according to an "original understanding" of the Constitution.
The phrase is generally used to describe legal theorists,
...who believe judges should try to figure out what the Constitution's
drafters would have ruled in contemporary cases.
Friends say references to Judge Alito as "Scalito," a
name meant to suggest that he is a clone of Justice Scalia, the court's
most robust conservative, are off the mark and demeaning.
Like Justice Scalia, Judge Alito is an Italian-American
from Trenton, whose jurisprudence is indisputably conservative. But while
Justice Scalia is known for his caustic writing and argumentative manner,
Judge Alito is described by clerks, lawyers and former schoolmates as a
man who takes extraordinary care to be gentle with others and is quick
to help a struggling lawyer arguing before his court.
"He's got a powerful intellectual humility, is the way
I'd put it," said Clark Lombardi....
Judge Alito as quiet and intensely focused on school
and family.
He was a standout student, a valedictorian who served
as student council president in his senior year. His yearbook entry lists
10 clubs and extracurricular activities, including band, track, honor society
and public speaking...
"He was very respected by his peers and his teachers,"
Mr. Fort remembered. "He was a very bright boy, very quiet and extremely
polite."...
Judge Alito was described him as a persuasive public
speaker and debater. "He wasn't an in-your-face confrontational person,"
he said. "It was just well-reasoned, solid argument."
Judge Alito attended Princeton just as it was opening
its doors to women, but classmates said he was not among those voicing
opposition. Professor Murphy said he had predicted that the young Sam Alito
would become a judge."He thought in judicial opinions even then," Professor
Murphy said, adding that it was "not as clear then as now" that Judge Alito
was a staunch conservative.
Mr. Dwyer said they both shunned the selective eating
clubs that were a center of social life at Princeton. Instead, they joined
Stevenson Hall, which was open to all students.
"Sam was never into cocktail parties or kissing up to
important people," Mr. Dwyer said. "Sam was a regular guy. He made it on
his smarts."...
At Yale Law School, where he was in the class behind
Justice Clarence Thomas, Judge Alito was widely regarded as one of the
smartest students, said Peter Goldberger, a classmate. Mr. Goldberger,
who describes himself as a staunch liberal, said it was always enjoyable
to get into a discussion with the young Mr. Alito.
"We fundamentally disagreed over just about everything,"
he said, "but it led to cheerful jousting."
Mr. Goldberger, who has also argued dozens of criminal
appeals before Judge Alito, said his style on the bench - as the member
of a three-judge panel who talks the least but asks the most perceptive
questions - recalled their Yale days.
"At Yale, he wasn't someone who spoke frequently in class,"
Mr. Goldberger said, "but when he did it was something you wished you had
said. It's the same way on the bench. He's always asking the right question."
Anthony T. Kronman, a Yale classmate who went on to become
dean of the law school from 1994 to 2004, said Judge Alito stood apart
from many classmates who wanted to be social reformers and saw the law
as an instrument of change.
"He appreciated the traditions," Mr. Kronman said. "He
seemed to take real pleasure in the intricacies of the law."'
Then, as later, he said, Judge Alito did not wear his
political leanings conspicuously. "If you asked me the day we graduated
whether Sam was a Republican or Democrat," he said, "I couldn't have told
you." ...
While some talented young lawyers reveled in the conservative
camaraderie of the Justice Department under Attorney General Edwin Meese
III, Mr. Alito was not among them.
"Nobody tagged Sam as a fire-breathing conservative,"
said Mark Levy, a self-described Clinton Democrat who worked with him there.
"He had friends across every divide."
Charles J. Cooper, the assistant attorney general in
charge of the Office of Legal Counsel, recruited him to become a deputy
assistant attorney general, ...which was a "pressure cooker" in those days,
handling the fallout from the Iran-Contra affair, among other issues. "But
I never saw him lose his temper or raise his voice," he said
Mr. Cooper, who has remained friendly with Mr. Alito,
said: "The power of his intellect is the most striking thing about him.
I'd imagine there are about six lawyers in the country who are John Roberts's
equal, and Sam is one of them."
...Katherine Huang, a Los Angeles lawyer who was a law
clerk to Judge Alito in 2000, said: "He's just a regular, approachable
guy. He's a truly gentle sort."
Former clerks say Judge Alito would sometimes don baseball
pants before rushing out the door to coach his son's Essex County Little
League team. "He didn't care who saw him dressed that way," said Mr. Lombardi,
the former clerk, now a law professor at the University of Washington.
Another former clerk, Jeffrey N. Wasserstein, once went
to watch Judge Alito coach a game. "He had just the right temperament as
a Little League coach," Mr. Wasserstein said, "enthusiastic in the right
way and very gentle in his teaching. Much like he was with his young law
clerks."...
The Alitos' largest social circle may be the other parents
of their daughter's swimming teammates. Laura Alito, a senior at James
Caldwell High School, is team captain and holds the school record in 100-meter
butterfly.
...Judge Alito has already achieved an unusual kind of
renown at the T. M. Ward coffee shop near the federal courthouse in Newark,
where a popular blend is called "Bold Justice - the Judge Alito blend."...
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/
politics/politicsspecial1/?excamp
=GGGNsamuelalito