Judge Samuel Alito, Jr.

Judge Samuel Alito, Jr. seems to be speeding along through the Congressional Hearings to become Associate Justice of United States Supreme Court. He impresses me as a competent judge, very bright, and very direct most off the time.

Some senators have expressed concern about his college days when he was a member of a conservative organization that was trying to make sure that the children of rich Princeton University alumni could attend Princeton and not be hampered by the admittance of minorities dictated by governmental quotas. Well, college kids join organizations. Thats why so many Hollywood and other artisans were blacklisted from work during the McCarthy era.

Some think that Judge Alito is pro big business. The example was a favorable ruling to 3M Corporation that permitted them to monopolize a product line by offering discounts on a group of related products that the competitor did not make.

Lets be more specific; 3M offered discounts on other products if the vendor sold only their Scotch Tape line. Judge Alito decided that 3M was not selling their tape (and I assume the other products) below manufacturing cost.

That is a criterion known in industry. Ive seen this in the ceramic business. My company was outbid on an order by a competitor giving a large discount if the customer bought all of their products from them. Our prices were lower on certain products. We could not make all of the products. We were out of luck.

Another time, a vendor absorbed tooling cost. This meant that he was selling below total manufacturing cost. Here the financial power of our company came in. We threatened to absorb all tooling cost in the future. We didnt need a court to settle that.

Judge Alito has the envious position that he does not have to answer all questions. If there is the possibility that a case my come up that would be jeopardized by his opinion, he doesnt answer it. He just says how he would go about solving the case.

I like the way that Judge Alito stays away from legal jargon during the hearings. I like is straightforward answers. He doesnt smile much. He certainly is not an air head. There is a saying that says Show me a guy that smiles all the time and Ill show you an idiot.

I think that Judge Alito will be confirmed and will become a great Associate Justice. Thats from an Independent voter.