A Heart, No Matter How Small

Emily Bazelon analyzes Judge Alito's decisions over the years that have favored the so-called "little guy." She concludes he has occasionally done so, but only with great reluctance.

In almost none of these cases, though, does Alito seem like a little-guy champion. He seems like a judge who dutifully follows the law. When the law instructs him to find for the criminal defendant or the plaintiff, he does so. When you get to the Supreme Court, though, you get to rip up the instruction manual and rewrite it. There's very little in Alito's record that suggests his revisions will favor the little guy. And a lot that suggests they won't.

In other words, he will only side with the little-guy when the law requires him to. A judge issuing decisions that comply with the law? What is the world coming to?

This is a clear demonstration of the liberal idea that the courts should be used to fix, rather than interpret, the law. Excuse me, the courts should be used to "rip up the instruction manual [a.k.a. the law] and rewrite it." Who needs democracy with judges like that?