Activism

Let's be clear about what judicial activism is. Judicial activism is legislating from the bench. Conservatives will tell us that judicial activism is bad, mmkay?

ThinkProgress has done us a lovely job of cataloging the attempted judicial activism of the Honorable Samuel A. Alito of the Third United States Circuit Court of Appeals, to wit:

• Congress exceeded its authority in passing the Family and Medical Leave Act (overturned by SCOTUS)
• Requirement for women to notify spouses before undergoing abortion procedure was not an undue burden (overturned by SCOTUS)
• Dissents in race- and disability-based discrimination cases
• From a case that originated in my beloved Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania: It's permissible to expand the coverage of a search warrant that covers one target and his home to include strip-searching an occupant of the premises (who happened to be 10 years old). Welcome home indeed, Little Nazi!
• Disregard for established law in two dissents in deportation cases

So. The guy dissents from his circuit consistently. When he's in the majority, he is frequently overturned.

Yep. Good judge, this guy. Conservative and restrained judicial temperament.

It's pretty clearly time to filibuster. I urged restraint on Miers, and she ended up imploding (thanks for validating me, Harriet!). No such luck this time. To the Bat-Streets!