|
||
| During 15 years as an appeals court judge, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. has been highly sympathetic to prosecutors, skeptical of immigrants trying to avoid deportation, and supportive of a lower wall between church and state, according to an analysis of his record by The Washington Post. Alito has taken a harder line on criminal and immigration cases than most federal appellate judges nationwide, including those who, like him, were selected by Republican presidents, the analysis found. In civil rights cases, Alito has sided against three of every four people who claimed to have been victims of discrimination, based on the lawsuits in the analysis. Such a record is typical of Republican appointees on federal appeals courts in discrimination cases, the area of the law in which national studies show GOP-appointed judges differ most from their Democratic-appointed counterparts. |
Still, in a few areas of the law, Alito's record resembles that of the average U.S. appellate judge. His decisions on First Amendment cases have been mixed. And when workers have sued for pay or benefits, he has agreed with them about half the time. The analysis, based on a database developed through a review of more than 200 cases Alito helped to decide on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, provides a more nuanced glimpse of his ideology than the portrayal by his supporters and critics. With Senate confirmation hearings scheduled to start next week, Bush administration officials and conservative allies working to win Alito's approval say he fits within the judicial mainstream; some Democrats and liberal advocacy groups trying to defeat his nomination say he is an ideologue. Neither characterization is completely accurate. Instead, the analysis, along with interviews of scholars who study the courts, shows that Alito takes consistently restrictive stances on some social issues and criminals' rights but does not differ substantially from the typical judge in other areas. |
|
| RETURN TO BIO | NEXT PAGE  |
|
