Whither Scalito?

Edward Lazarus, a lawyer who won a recent Supreme Court opinion for a client on death row, asks what kind of Justice will Samuel Alito be? After leading with the idea that new Chief Justice Roberts has turned out to be more cutting and partisan than he seemed, Lazarus goes on to describe the opposite surprise regarding Alito.

After the Court granted review in Holmes, but before oral argument, Alito replaced Sandra Day O'Connor. It seemed, at the time, that this could only be bad news for Holmes [Lazarus's client]. O'Connor was a very strong advocate for the line of cases on which Holmes's first argument - the due process/confrontation clause argument -- rested.

...

But Alito's opinion declaring South Carolina's rule unconstitutional did not fulfill any of these fears. Instead, it reflects much of the persona Alito ascribed to himself at his hearings - namely, that he was a plainspoken, pragmatic, and precedent-oriented judge. Whereas Roberts has thus far shown signs of being more strident and less open-minded than advertised, Alito has been true to his word during his brief tenure. So far, he's vindicated the many colleagues who vouched for him.

It's an interesting bit of tea-leaf reading.