Alito's Way

I am trying to come up with a reason as to why this does not surprise me:

[Alito's] extensive paper trail of 15 years of opinions reveals a jurist deeply skeptical of claims against large corporations. A review of dozens of business cases in which Judge Alito has written majority or dissenting opinions or cast the decisive vote shows that, with few exceptions, he has sided with employers over employees in discrimination lawsuits and in favor of corporations over investors in securities fraud cases.

Judge Alito ... cast the decisive vote in a case involving a major steel company, and in another involving a large chemical maker, over environmentalists in pollution cases.

Oh, right. He's a Bush nominee.

I always love seeing testimonials from corporate lawyers. Robert C. Heim is the head of litigation for a law firm that represents some of the nation's largest corporations, corporations that often face allegations of anti-trust, securities fraud, etc. If Heim's endorsement doesn't give you the chills about Alito, nothing will:

We're always happy to see Judge Alito on the panel.

But wait, there's more:

He has come down on a host of issues in a way that the business community would prefer.

Sounds like a helluva a great guy.

As the digging continues into Alito's judicial past, it can only be expected that more of this will come out. But I think it is pretty clear at this point that Alito is Bush-man in the truest sense: given toward favouring big business.

As I and others have argued, the GOP, and especially the Bush administration, merely use the moral values crowd when convenient. It should be pretty obvious at this point that the White House couldn't care less about gay marriage, or stem cell research or other "hot button" moral issues. Their true interest lay in corporatism and corporate profiteering. Far more than demonstrating animus toward civic and individual rights, Alito's case record is cast with a warm, fuzzy glow from community of big business. His opinion in abortion cases like Planned Parenthood v Casey just happens to be a nice little bonus that can be used to appease the "pro-life" Christian right in what I am now expecting will be his easy confirmation. Though the Dems are talking tough now, I really doubt that much will come of that, no matter how much it probably should.