Supreme Court Nominee - Samuel A. Alito

His views, take it or leave it.

He has a military background. Facing almost certainly being drafted, he elected to join the Army Reserves so that he could start with a higher rank than if he were drafted. He would also be the fifth Catholic in the Supreme Court as it stands today.

Court Opinions:

Disagreed with majority
African American Woman who alleged that she was denied a promotion because she was black. Alito disagreed, writing that the Marriott hotel had merely committed "minor inconsistencies" in its rules for filling jobs and that it would be wrong to allow "disgruntled employees to impose the costs of trial on employers who, although they have not acted with the intent to discriminate, may have treated their employees unfairly."

Agreed - Police search unconstitutional -Stating they "could not justifiably arrest any African-American man who happened to drive by in any type of black sports car."

Disagreed with majority - A black defendant had alleged that the prosecutor in his case had improperly disqualified potential jurors who were black. The majority ruled that, based on statistics the man had presented, an "amateur with a pocket calculator" could deduce that the prosecutor was striking jurors based on their race.



Disagreed - That "consideration of race or sex for the purpose of insuring diversity in the classroom as one of many factors in an employment decision." This related to a suit regarding layoffs of school teachers.

Disagreed - Alito disagreed with the majority that said a lower court judge should allow a trial for a medical student, in pain after a car accident, who had dropped out of the Medical College of Pennsylvania and filed a disability claim, alleging that the school had not done enough to enable her to sit through classes.

Abortion - He voted in 1991 to uphold a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses.

Abortion - Alito was among the judges who ruled that a New Jersey law banning late-term abortions was unconstitutional. He had to do this because the Supreme Court precedents dictated that he had to.

Agreed - He set aside Environmental Protection Agency orders to clean up ammonia from a fertilizer plant that polluted drinking-water wells in Lansing, Mich.

Rejected - Judge Alito rejected a claim by a casino patron who sought to recover gambling losses allegedly caused by the casino's serving him free liquor and allowing him to continue gambling after he became drunk.

Agreed - Family Medical Leave Act, which requires employers to give employees time off for childbirths or serious health conditions, goes beyond Congress' power.

Agreed - There "is no question that the free speech clause protects a wide variety of speech that listeners may consider deeply offensive, including statements that impugn another's race or national origin or that denigrate religious beliefs."

Disagreed - Alito was criticized by his colleagues for his dissent, in which he favored striking down a federal law prohibiting possession of machine guns, citing Supreme Court precedent in a case involving gun possession in school zones.

More to come as it becomes available.