In recent Supreme Court arguments, the former prosecutor has asked skeptical questions about criminal cases against former President Donald Trump, Jan. 6 defendants and gun owners.
WASHINGTON — Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, a former U.S. attorney with a long history of voting in favor of prosecutors, has shown signs of empathy for defendants in recent cases involving gun owners, Jan 6. rioters and former President Donald Trump.
He sides with defendants less frequently than any of his eight colleagues, according to numbers crunched by Lee Epstein, a political scientist at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
One such case was a 2009 ruling authored by staunch conservative Justice Antonin Scalia that said defendants have a right to question lab technicians who analyze evidence the prosecution hopes to rely on at trial.
Four years later, Alito was in the majority and Scalia in dissent when the court ruled that states can conduct DNA testing during arrests without requiring a warrant.
But to those critical of Alito, his selective empathy ties him solidly with the kind of conservative cultural grievances that they think helped Trump become president.
In 2017, Siegel wrote an article in which he called Alito “the primary judicial voice of the many millions of Americans who appear to be losing the culture war.”
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WASHINGTON — Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, a former U.S. attorney with a long history of voting in favor of prosecutors, has shown signs of empathy for defendants in recent cases involving gun owners, Jan 6. rioters and former President Donald Trump.
He sides with defendants less frequently than any of his eight colleagues, according to numbers crunched by Lee Epstein, a political scientist at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
One such case was a 2009 ruling authored by staunch conservative Justice Antonin Scalia that said defendants have a right to question lab technicians who analyze evidence the prosecution hopes to rely on at trial.
Four years later, Alito was in the majority and Scalia in dissent when the court ruled that states can conduct DNA testing during arrests without requiring a warrant.
But to those critical of Alito, his selective empathy ties him solidly with the kind of conservative cultural grievances that they think helped Trump become president.
In 2017, Siegel wrote an article in which he called Alito “the primary judicial voice of the many millions of Americans who appear to be losing the culture war.”
The original article contains 997 words, the summary contains 191 words. Saved 81%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!