[MLUG - DISCUSSION] Alito's first decision on the supreme court

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

The decision of Alito that is described here seems totally in line with 
answers I remember Alito providing to Leahy when he was questioned at 
the nomination hearings.  I really do get the sense that I am going to 
end up admiring Alito very much.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183524,00.html

Alito Splits With Conservatives in Death Penalty Case
Wednesday, February 01, 2006

WASHINGTON — New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the 
court's conservative Wednesday night, refusing to let Missouri execute a 
death-row inmate contesting lethal injection.

Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who 
had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief 
Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas 
supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members 
in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight 
execution.

Earlier in the day, Alito was sworn in for a second time in a White 
House ceremony, where he was lauded by President Bush as a man of 
"steady demeanor, careful judgment and complete integrity."

He was also was given his assignment for handling emergency appeals: 
Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South 
Dakota. As a result, Missouri filed with Alito its request for the high 
court to void a stay and allow Taylor's execution.

The court's split vote Wednesday night ended a frenzied day of filings. 
Missouri twice asked the justices to intervene and permit the execution, 
while Taylor's lawyers filed two more appeals seeking delays.

Reporters and witnesses were gathered at the state prison awaiting word 
from the high court on whether to go ahead with the execution.

An appeals court will now review Taylor's claim that lethal injection is 
cruel and unusual punishment, a claim also used by two Florida death-row 
inmates that won stays from the Supreme Court over the past week. The 
court has agreed to use one of the cases to clarify how inmates may 
bring last-minute challenges to the way they will be put to death.

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