The NY Times reports:
Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. has reliably favored big-business litigants as he has pushed the federal appeals court in Philadelphia in a conservative direction.
His extensive paper trail of 15 years of opinions reveals a jurist deeply skeptical of claims against large corporations. A review of dozens of business cases in which Judge Alito has written majority or dissenting opinions or cast the decisive vote shows that, with few exceptions, he has sided with employers over employees in discrimination lawsuits and in favor of corporations over investors in securities fraud cases.
No wonder the real power brokers in the GOP are happy with Alito. I never met a Wall Street broker who gave a shit about abortion or gay marriage, but they did care about class-action lawsuits. As uber-lobbyist and GOP insider, Michael Scanlon said:
“The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees. Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them.”
Simply put, the fat cats have been getting the ‘wackos’ to do their bidding for a very long time. But this time, they seem to have found a real wacko judge who also loves to screw the little guy.
“We’re always happy to see Judge Alito on the panel,” said Robert C. Heim, the head of the litigation department at Dechert, a large law firm based in Philadelphia that represents some of the nation’s largest corporations, typically facing accusations of antitrust, securities or corporate law violations.
So, it really shouldn’t surprise anyone that:
Major business groups are preparing to spend millions of dollars to lobby on his behalf, and may help him with pivotal Democrats.
Welcome to Bushland.
Author: BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly.
He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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