Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

People for the American Way, a group that stands for traditional American values including civil liberties and equality has issued a ‘fact sheet’ on Judge Alito (or, read the summary fact sheet). The tenor of the report is summed up in the (somewhat shrill?) headline “Samuel Alito: Leading the Attack on Fundamental Legal Rights and Protections for All Americans”.

Angry Bear takes a look at an Alito decision on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and reports that “All in all, my first foray into learning about Samuel Alito was not an encouraging one.”

Kash reports that Alito’s way-out-of-the-mainstream opinion was rejected by the Supreme Court, 6-3, in an opinion by Chief Justice Rehnquist. (I must confess, though, that I don’t recall that decision; I will (re)read it, and if I find anything that contradicts Kash’s analysis, I’ll update here.)

Update: The Alito opinion in question is rather conclusory on the key points, which may make it more or less awful depending on whether you are a glass half full or empty type person. And the Supreme Court opinion is not a direct review, but rather a review of later decision by the 9th Circuit. Thus Chief Justice Rehnquist’s opinion doesn’t directly engage Judge Alito’s, but does indeed reject the views he adopted.