Word: scalia
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...predictions of the end to spending restraint. As with the Bong Hits case, it also starts to show the ideological limits of the Roberts Court, where the President's two appointees, Roberts and Samuel Alito, are less open to sweeping legal change than their counterparts on the right, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas...
...Things could have turned out a lot worse for friends of McCain-Feingold, because three justices - Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy - wanted to go farther than Roberts and Alito by reversing the 2003 decision and striking down all the statute?s restrictions on ads, including the ban on ads advocating a specific candidate shortly before an election...
...That brings up an important point. As the court's term draws to a close, it becomes increasingly clear that Roberts and Alito - Bush's two selections for the court - are far different from Scalia and Thomas. As Cass Sunstein, the constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago, describes them, Scalia and Thomas are "visionaries:" justices with a clear view of the Constitution's meaning and an equally clear sense of how they want the law to change. They write or join dissenting or concurring opinions - like the one in this case, or the one that calls for reversing...
...Though Alito and Roberts have often voted with Scalia and Thomas, they are not visionaries. Instead, they pay close attention to precedent, and they write opinions with deep attention to detail and legal craft. Unlike Scalia and Thomas, "they don't thunder," says Sunstein. "They?re excellent, but not inspiring...
...This hasn't meant much in practice this term, but it may have a big effect in the future. It could mean the cornerstones of constitutional law - the limits on presidential power and the precedents like Roe v. Wade - may survive the Roberts court, as Scalia and Thomas continue to thunder on the right while Roberts and Alito exercise the same relative restraint they have shown...