This morning Senator Kohl noted that Justice O’Connor is seen as someone who is “at the center of the Court” and asked Judge Alito if he would “fill the same role as Justice O'Connor has filled” if he were confirmed to take her place. Alito answered by saying that he would “emulate her dedication and her integrity and her dedication to the case-by-case process of adjudication.” He carefully avoided answering whether he would be a centrist on the Court (even after Senator Kohl repeated the question), or saying anything at all comparing his judicial philosophy to Justice O’Connor’s. Of course, we already know from his extensive record that Samuel Alito is no centrist, even on a conservative court; on the contrary, he is on the far right of the ideological spectrum. But his handling of Sen. Kohl’s question shows that Judge Alito knows that too, and could not pretend otherwise in his testimony.
