The Black Republican

Robert Gordon, writing at Slate is concerned about Sam Alito's record. Not just because he's conservative, but he's so horribly consistent about it.

Of course, caveats apply. All of the cases (described earlier in the story) are more complicated than short summaries can capture. In any given case, Alito's position often seems reasonable; it is the accumulation of consistent results that surprises....

If you are the sort of person who believes conservatives are always right, Alito's consistency in many matters will cheer you. Maybe it will even send you into the same earthly rapture that America's right has experienced since Monday morning. But if you are the sort of person who believes that conservatives and liberals both tell some of the truth and neither tells all of it, you may prefer the sort of conservative judge who ventures out of camp more often.

So, while Ted Kennedy and Diane Feinstein are lamenting how far "out of the mainstream" Judge Alito is, just remind them how consistently conservative Robert Gordon thinks he is. Unless you're swimming in the deep Blue waters of the Great Lakes or along the coasts, this is one jurist who is solidly within the "mainstream".

What is almost as enlightening is Gordon's confusion regarding the concept of "activism". In keeping with the lead set up by their Democratic allies, the MSM appears ready to tar conservative rulings as "activism" if a judge overrules any legislative action, even if it's clearly unconstitutional according to the text or original intent.

Yes, Alito shares Justice Antonin Scalia's ambivalence toward judicial activism. Both men tout their own restraint in deferring to majorities that step on individual rights (including a woman's decision whether to bear a child). Both men also act aggressively to override majorities that touch states' rights like sovereign immunity from lawsuits. And neither Scalia nor Alito has really explained how to reconcile the criticism of activism on one front with the embrace of activism on the other.

The remainder of the column is a comparison between Alito's "striking" consistency and Justice Scalia's occasional departure from conservative conventional thinking. In most of these cases, Scalia tries to support a view of constitutionality that Gordon incorrectly perceives as a slide toward liberalism, which - of course - makes Scalia somewhat less scary than Alito.

But... Scalia has actually proved to be less adventuresome than Alito in curtailing congressional power....

When Antonin Scalia starts looking good, you know you're in trouble.

Only if you think all salvation lies through liberalism, Mr. Gordon.