Comments on: The Effect of Justice Alito http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/the-effect-of-justice-alito/ The Supreme Court of the United States blog Thu, 26 Jun 2008 21:56:34 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Rick Hasen http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/the-effect-of-justice-alito/comment-page-1/#comment-9991 Rick Hasen Tue, 27 Jun 2006 21:09:47 +0000 http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/uncategorized/the-effect-of-justice-alito/#comment-9991 I think there may be additional, more subtle effects as well, Tom, of Justice Alito's tenure on the Court. For example, at first glance, it might appear that Justice Alito's position in the campaign finance case decided yesterday (Randall v. Sorrell) was not determinative (It was a 6-3 opinion). But upon closer inspection, it could have been that the presence of Justice Alito (rather than Justice O'Connor, who had voted to uphold many of the recent campaign finance laws challenged in the Supreme Court) led Justice Breyer to reverse his vote in this case, thereby being in the position to write a narrower opinion preserving more of existing campaign finance law. Had Justice Breyer joined Justice Souter's dissent, it is possible that Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas could have agreed on an opinion that would have been much more far reaching in striking down campaign contribution laws. Rick Hasen TG responds: Thanks Rick. I'm sure that there have been innumerable ways that Justice Alito's presence on the Court has made a difference, potentially including the one you identify. I didn't mean this post to be exhaustive, just illuminating in a single, narrow respect. I think there may be additional, more subtle effects as well, Tom, of Justice Alito’s tenure on the Court. For example, at first glance, it might appear that Justice Alito’s position in the campaign finance case decided yesterday (Randall v. Sorrell) was not determinative (It was a 6-3 opinion). But upon closer inspection, it could have been that the presence of Justice Alito (rather than Justice O’Connor, who had voted to uphold many of the recent campaign finance laws challenged in the Supreme Court) led Justice Breyer to reverse his vote in this case, thereby being in the position to write a narrower opinion preserving more of existing campaign finance law. Had Justice Breyer joined Justice Souter’s dissent, it is possible that Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas could have agreed on an opinion that would have been much more far reaching in striking down campaign contribution laws.
Rick Hasen

TG responds: Thanks Rick. I’m sure that there have been innumerable ways that Justice Alito’s presence on the Court has made a difference, potentially including the one you identify. I didn’t mean this post to be exhaustive, just illuminating in a single, narrow respect.

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