Liberal praise for Alito >link<

Here is an article posted at law.com, from the The Legal Intelligencer, describing Judge Alito.

Lawyers who know Alito complained Monday that his nickname -- "Scalito" -- has unfairly branded Alito as a carbon copy of Justice Antonin Scalia and a "knee-jerk conservative" whose vote is predictable. "To call him 'Scalito' is to completely misunderstand him," said attorney Timothy K. Lewis of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, a former 3rd Circuit judge who was Alito's colleague for seven years. Lewis, who describes himself as liberal, said Alito is solidly conservative and that the two sometimes disagreed, but that it was "always a deeply respectful disagreement." "First and foremost," Lewis said, "Sam Alito is intellectually honest. This is what makes him a wonderful judge and also why I feel very good about his appointment to the Supreme Court."

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Attorney Alan Epstein of Spector Gadon & Rosen also described Alito as "intellectually honest" and said he considers him "eminently qualified" to sit on the Supreme Court. Unlike "result-oriented" judges who "decide where they want to be and then figure out how to get there," Epstein said, Alito has a solid track record of judging each case on its facts and applying the law as he sees it to those facts. "I don't think you can ask more of a judge," Epstein said. Epstein said Alito's "brand of conservatism is encapsulated in a strict adherence to what he believes are inviolate constitutional principles." But while a Justice Alito would likely align himself with the conservative wing of the court, Epstein predicted that Alito would not agree with Justices Scalia and Clarence Thomas on all issues. "He may surprise us," Epstein said.

Sounds fair to me.