This Is Probably Good News

There's a post over at the world's most powerful blog that suggests that Judge Alito shares Justice Scalia's views on presidential power. But this is, er, good news for civil libertarians, I think.

I know that many, many liberals hate Justice Scalia. And, from their perspective, he is wrong on a number of issues. But don't hate the playa, hate the game. Here, it should be noted that Justice Scalia took the most civil libertarian position in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, along with Justice Stevens, essentially saying that under the Constitution there is no "indefinite detention of U.S. citizens" option. And, well, I think that the good justice is right on this. If Judge Alito agrees, then that's a good thing.

Btw, kos is talking about Morrison v. Olson, in which Justice Scalia was the lone dissenter; he would have held that the independent counsel law was an unconstitutional usurpation of the president's executive power. For myself, I think that the Ken Starr Lewinsky witchhunt proves Scalia correct, in an institutional sense, at least. Formalism is not always a bad thing, people. And Justice Scalia may yet have a part to play in this story.

Perhaps Justice Alito, too.