I really hope I was too hasty in judging Sam Alito. Hopefully, every analysis I read that explained how his staunch conservatism would pervade his decisions was inaccurate, had mischaracterized a responsible, fair judge as a mindless ideologue. Seriously, if I'm wrong on this one, I'll happily admit it and rethink my whole take on the Supreme Court and the nominating and confirmation process.
Alito made his first decision as a Justice today, and it seems he went against his supposedly like-minded colleagues to...get this...provide a death-row inmate with a stay of execution!
Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.
Way to go, Alito! Hard to tell from just a brief news snippet, but in choosing not to kill this guy, he seems to me to be on the right side of this one. (And honestly, if Clarence Thomas thinks it's a terrible idea, it's more than likely the right thing to do.)
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