One liberal's positive view of Alito

Katherine (Kate) Pringle is a partner in a New York law firm.  She is also a progressive Democrat who was heavily involved in John Kerry's presidential campaign.  And after she graduated from law school in 1993, she spent a year working as a law clerk to Third Circuit Judge Samuel Alito, Jr.

In light of this morning's nomination of Alito to the Supreme Court, I called Pringle to get her take.  The short answer: she is very pleased with the nomination.  More below.

I asked Pringle to describe what kind of judge Alito is.  She said that Alito is "very thoughtful, very careful, very respectful of Supreme Court precedent.  He has a strong conservative intellectual approach to things, but he is respectful, honest, and straightforward."  She emphasized that Alito is very respectful of the litigants in the case before the court, and also of the opinions of his colleagues - he always looks for common ground and for opportunities to build consensus.  She added that he is "not out there to accomplish a specific agenda," and noted his respect for "the Supreme Court as an institution."  Incidentally, Alito's "respect for litigants" was echoed in this NPR story that interviewed Clark Lombardi, also a former Alito clerk (I do not know whether Lombardi self-identifies as a liberal or a conservative).  Lombardi emphasized that Alito was very aware of the "human side" of cases, and said that Alito never treated litigants as pawns in a grand ideological chess game.

I wondered what Pringle meant by a "strong conservative intellectual approach."  She elaborated: "he cares a lot about the words of the statute or constitutional provision or contract" involved in the case.  "He starts first and foremost with the words."  Pringle added that Alito is "not interested in being expansive with judicial opinions.  He decides the specific issue in front of him, and is not inclined to go beyond that."

The "deciding specific issues" approach to judicial decisionmaking has been associated with the Justice that Alito would replace, Sandra Day O'Connor.  O'Connor is known for writing very narrow opinions that resolve little more than the precise set of facts presented to the Court - and some have criticized her for that practice, preferring that Justices write expansive opinions laying down broad rules for future cases.  I asked Pringle whether she thought Alito was in "the O'Connor mold" in this respect.  She thought that he was.  She described Alito as "interested in focusing on the immediate case at hand.  He is not someone who is eager to reach out and grab broad principles and institute them separate and apart from the case."  I asked whether Alito might alter his case-by-case approach to judging on the Supreme Court.  Pringle didn't think he would.

If you've heard any news stories about Judge Alito, you've heard that his supposed "nickname" (it remains unclear by whom it was bestowed) is "Scalito," the idea being that he's a "little Scalia."  I asked Pringle if she thought this was fair to Alito.  "No," she said, "I never have."  Pringle noted that Scalia and Alito are of course both of Italian ancestry, are both Catholic, and are both conservative, but she thinks there are more important differences between them including temperament, personal style, and the desire (or lack thereof) to find consensus.  (See also this Time article on the "Scalito" comparison.  My own view, FWIW, is that this "Scalito" business is simply due to two conservative judges having Italian surnames that happen to sound similar.  It is therefore insulting and juvenile and should be dropped immediately - if two Jewish judges' names were subjected to similar wordplay, the "joke" would be widely condemned as anti-semitic.)

Moving into more dangerous territory, I asked Pringle whether she had any sense of how Alito would apply stare decisis (the doctrine counseling respect for precedent) on the Supreme Court.  Her view is that, because of Alito's tremendous respect for the Supreme Court as an institution, he is unlikely to overturn precedent lightly.  Rather, he will grapple with existing precedent, even when he might have decided the original case differently, and will give considerable importance to the opinions and approaches of the Justices that came before him.  She thought that overall Alito's approach would probably resemble that described by now-Chief Justice Roberts in Roberts' confirmation hearings.  As to specifics, Pringle was not willing to hazard a guess as to whether, given the chance, Alito would vote to overrule hot-button cases like Roe v. Wade and Lawrence v. Texas.

Pringle, as I noted earlier, is a liberal Democrat.  I wondered whether her ideological bent was an anomaly in Alito's chambers, or whether Alito routinely hired left-of-center law clerks.  She didn't know whether Alito intentionally hires law clerks with diverse viewpoints, but she did know that she was not alone - a good number of Alito's past law clerks are far more liberal than he is.  She also emphasized that Alito was always asking his clerks for their viewpoints, and that he enjoyed the debate when different opinions emerged on particular cases (this, too, was echoed in the NPR interview with ex-clerk Lombardi).

Pringle's bottom line is a pragmatic one.  Of course, Alito would not have been on John Kerry's or any other Democrat's short list for the Supreme Court.  But, as we all know, John Kerry didn't win in 2004, nor did the Democrats capture a majority in the Senate.  Given that reality, Pringle said, "I'd rather have someone who has real intellectual ability, who has experience, who has a history of making these kinds of difficult decisions, and who has demonstrated respect for the Court as an institution, than a stealth candidate."  And given the other candidates on the "conservative short list," Pringle is optimistic about Alito.  She says that he will treat every case fairly, and that "we'll be proud to have him on the Court."

So there you have it: one view of the Alito nomination, from a lefty who knows him well.  FWIW, I'm still undecided on this nomination, because I haven't read nearly as much as I want to read before taking a position.  I'd encourage you to do the same: do at least some of the reading yourself - don't let the interest groups filter it for you.  You can start with this site, which contains links to the full text of several important Alito opinions.  Also, be sure to check out SCOTUSblog (starting with this post), which will be covering this nomination extensively, including detailed discussions of important cases, and which scrupulously avoids pushing an agenda in either direction.