Alito's First Day

You gotta love this picture:
Can you imagine what Judge Alito's first day must have been like? First, watching the Senate vote on your confirmation while sitting with the President in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. Then a quick trip over to the Supreme Court in a motorcade to be sworn in and find your new office. Finally, you get to sit in the front row at the State of the Union Address, along with the Chief Justice and two other Associate Justices. That must have been a pretty heady moment.

Dana Milbank reported on some of Alito's first rulings as a member of the Supreme Court (from Bench Memos):

At times, Alito followed the lead of the other three justices who sat with him in the front row. When Bush said "We love our freedom, and we will fight to keep it," Thomas looked at Roberts, who looked at Breyer, who gave an approving shrug; all four gentlemen stood and gave unanimous applause.

At other times, Alito showed independence from his senior colleagues. When Bush delivered the stock line "The state of our union is strong," Alito dissented while the other three robed justices in the front row applauded. When Bush declared that "liberty is the right and hope of all humanity," Alito was the only member of the judicial quartet to provide his concurring applause.

It seemed from their frequent conferences that the justices had agreed on some ground rules: Any mention of Iraq or hot domestic disputes were off limits; broad appeals to patriotism were deemed applause-worthy. But there were disputes. When Bush said "We will never surrender to evil," the justices conferred briefly. Breyer shook his head, but Roberts overruled him, and Breyer reluctantly stood with his three colleagues.

On his second day on the job, Judge Alito handled his first case, and to the surprise of many, parted company with the court's conservatives and voted to stay an execution in Missouri. I don't think you can detect a trend from just one case, but in his first opportunity, he proved to be his own man and not "Scalito" or a clone of Roberts or Clarence Thomas.

I doubt that the Senate Dems are very comforted, though.