Some support for 'Scalito'

Yahoo News has an interesting article rounding up the liberal support for Alito. Primarily it is restricted to his colleagues or former clerks, so some personal bias is likely at play.

If Alan Dershowitz and Laurence Tribe get behind Alito's nomination, I'll feel a lot better, but I think there's enough other evidence to give Alito a second look.

But I have a fairly open mind about Alito. (I tend to have a fairly open mind about anyone who is demonstrably brilliant.) The reasons I outlined earlier for skepticism about his nomination are primarily not about Alito himself, but about the effects his nomination will have on national politics and the power of interest groups.

As for whether he will overturn Roe, it is important to realize that personal opposition to abortion and disagreement with the way that Roe was decided does not entail a total rejection of the legality of the practice of abortion. I have not read his opinion on Planned Parenthood v. Casey, but there is reason to believe it's not as disastrously ideological as has been thought. This is an excellent analysis by, of all things, an Irish blogger. (I'm adding her to my Bloglines subscription list.)

PowerLine (this is likely the first and last time I will be linking to them in approval) has a very convincing reading of 'that strip-search decision' that significantly diminishes the idea that Alito is a cruel and evil judge.

I'm not saying that there aren't significant questions about Alito, primarily in the areas of federal control and executive dominance, but I think it's worth taking a look at the possibility that Bush could still have done far worse.

I do, however, have to oppose the Alito nomination on the grounds that he's a Princeton graduate. Nothing good comes out of Princeton; at least F. Scott Fitzgerald had the sense to leave before he graduated.