Don't guess at Judge Alito's predilictions. I am a full-time criminal defense appellate litigator, and more than half my cases are in the 3d Circuit. Alito -- unlike some judges we both know -- does not "twist the facts, ignore facts, and even make up facts to make the facts fit the argument they want to make." He is intellectually honest in the highest degree.

He has written 8 opinions I can find in capital cases; in 6 he voted to uphold the death sentence. In two cases, he wrote opinions overturning lower court denials of habeas corpus relief to death-sentenced prisoners. Williams, 343 F.3d 223 (2003); Carpenter, 296 F.3d 138 (2002). On the other hand, in one case his opinion to deny relief was overturned by the Supreme Court in a close vote opinion by Souter. Rompilla, 355 F3d 233.

He is very conservative, but he is neither knee-jerk nor dishonest. As two more examples, compare US v Hodge, 246 F3d 301 (2001), overturning a suppression order and upholding a search, with US v Kithcart, 134 F.3d 529 (1998) overturning the denial of a suppression motion and finding no probable cause to arrest.

Finally, check out his opinions in US v Murray, 103 F3d 310 (1997), overturning a federal murder conviction because of the prosecutor's unfair use of evidence of the defendant's prior misconduct (other killings), and in US v Rosero, 42 F3d 166 (1994), reversing a marijuana smuggling conviction based on complex application of international criminal law concerning stateless vessels. Simplistic cartooning won't do here.

Yesterday, Peter wrote in the comments here:

I have known Sam Alito for 33 years; we were law school classmates. He is surely very conservative. He is also very bright, very fairminded, and very honest, and demands the same in others. No one who knows him thinks the expression "Scalito" is anything but a journalistic gimmick; it's not his nickname. He is his own man intellectually; he's no clone of Scalia or of anyone else. Still, I will be very surprised if the President were to appoint a second Italian-American male from Trenton NJ to the Supreme Court at the same time. It's a big country full of qualified candidates; wouldn't that be going rather far in the non-diversity direction? I'm still expecting a woman or a Hispanic from the Southeast or Texas.

My problem with Judge Alito is that his only real-world legal experience before becoming a judge was as a prosecutor and attorney for the Government. In those positions, one looks for the law that supports his side. I think Justices to the Supreme Court should view cases through the lens of the Constitution, not the Government. Unless Alito can show the Senate that he will do that, he's not the man for the job.