WASHINGTON (AP) - New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the court's conservatives Wednesday night, refusing to let Missouri execute a death-row inmate contesting lethal injection.

 

Alito, handling his first case, sided with inmate Michael Taylor, who had won a stay from an appeals court earlier in the evening. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060202/D8FGN4900.html

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060202/D8FGN4900.html

Yes, that is why it absolutely drives me nuts when these hearings go down and people in Congress pull the dog and pony show of grandstanding and asking questions that really can't be answered.

 

There is a solid history of supreme court justices going against what people thought they would. Most of these judges are reasonable people who look at the facts of each case presented to them and judge them accordingly.

 

In the long run Alito may end up being extremely conservative, but it would not shock me at all if he ended up being moderate, it happens, these people don't have to run for reelection.

It still surprised me. As much that Roberts is voting w/ the far right clique of the court -- I thought he would be moderate.

 

That's just going off their answers to the Senate. You're right, though, it doesn't mean much at this point.

It still surprised me.  As much that Roberts is voting w/ the far right clique of the court -- I thought he would be moderate.

 

That's just going off their answers to the Senate.  You're right, though, it doesn't mean much at this point.

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Even though they are both Catholic & the Catholic Church has become even more vocal against capital punishment of late I am not surprised by the split of Roberts & Alito. Roberts is a hard core conservative. Alito is a much softer one. He's driven more by his spiritual upbringing than any hard core conservative ideals.