Alito and Ginsburg Are What’s Left

Dave Hardy notes that after today’s opinion release that Alito and Ginsburg are the only two remaining justices that have not issued an opinion from this sitting. This worries me because while many have always felt that Kennedy was the weakest link in the Heller Five, I’ve speculated that it’s actually Sam Alito. Let us hope this doesn’t say anything about the outcome of the case.

6 thoughts on “Alito and Ginsburg Are What’s Left”

  1. What Sebastian said.

    Alito asked only a few, brief questions during the McDonald oral argument. They are hard to interpret. He expressed skepticism at one point about the “partial incorporation” approach that Breyer and the other liberal Justices were interested in — why would we treat only the Second Amendment that way, Alito asked, when nearly all other provisions of the Bill of Rights have been fully incorporated?
    On the other hand, Alito also asked Clement at one point whether the Court should follow the second Justice Harlan’s approach to due process — which was definitely a “partial incorporation” approach.

    Kennedy is a some-of-the-time libertarian. Alito is a former prosecutor from New Jersey.

    I still think the most likely outcome is a brief opinion with four Justices voting for full incorporation pursuant to DP; Thomas concurring separately to vote for full incorporation pursuant to P or I (= five votes for full incorporation); and then four dissenters urging either partial incorporation or none at all.

    We shall see, within the next seven days.

  2. Nervous nellies …

    This question … whether the second amendment is incorporated via the fourteenth … is a slam-dunk. It simply cannot be any other way.

    And I suspect this notion of reading the tea-leaves of who has written decisions and who has not … is an over-reach.

  3. If I remember, Souter was the last one w/o an opinion before Heller, and Scalia wasn’t handing the keys over to him.

    I will not be confident until I read the opinion, but this doesn’t worry me.

  4. Two quick thoughts for DC (and a member of the Supreme Court bar):

    Questions from the bench are beyond meaningless in calculating and evaluating where a justice is coming down (heck, when was the last time Clarence Thomas even asked a question)

    I wouldn’t reach too much into who has drafted what when and how the impacts the remaining who will be drafting the remaining cases.

  5. Well were going to have to wait until the last day before we get a ruling. And thats after there are no more cases to rule on.

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