Oh, by the way – there is news in the world that doesn’t concern the Massachusetts Governor’s race! Last night Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito cast his first vote (p. 4) in a matter that wasn’t decided unanimously. He sided with the Court’s four “liberals” and Justice Kennedy in rejecting Missouri’s request to lift a lower court’s order that barred the state from executing a prisoner. The issue that the lower court wanted more time to consider is whether Missouri’s method of execution (lethal injection) constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Scalia and Thomas dissented, voting to lift the stay and allow Missouri to carry out the execution.
Not the world’s most significant vote – but it’s interesting nonetheless. The wingnuts are working hard to keep their surprised and already-restless troops under control.
And in other Alito-related news, the WaPo has this long and interesting article dissecting the disastrous Democratic handling of the Alito nomination.
Is it possible that Alito is against the death penalty? I don’t want to read too deep into one ruling, but I don’t recall this question coming up during the Senate hearings. If it did, I guess I don’t remember it. Alito is by all accounts a staunch Catholic so it is possible he does not support the death penalty. I could be way off base on this, so if anyone has evidence to the contrary from his past rulings, I’d love to see it. Because otherwise, I can’t really explain why he would rule this way. As the Times Online said:
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Leahy in particular tried to get Alito to agree that there was a constitutional right not to be executed if you’re innocent. Alito’s answer to that, as it was to everything, was to retreat into the minutiae of complex procedural requirements of habeas petitions, etc. So no information was gained.