By all accounts, Alito is the hill worth dying for, that many of us have been waiting for. I have no independent knowledge so I’m deferring to those who are smarter at this point. Alito certainly seems to have the broad respect and admiration of serious conservatives. The Dems are squealing on cue, so that’s a good sign. In the kind of fight that’s ahead, however, it is the more lily-livered Republican senators on which this will turn. Today is Hallowe’en, and, make no mistake, what we have to fear is the spectre of Specter; i.e. Arlen, R- Pa, the worst conceivable Chairman of the Judiciary Committee we could have at this point in time.

To make matters worse, it appears that Specter has some particular history with Alito that could make him act in an even more pig-brained way than usual. From Patterico:

In 1991, Arlen Specter and other political and union leaders filed a lawsuit challenging the closure of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. The shipyard had been targeted by a closure list created pursuant to the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act. Specter was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. He and the other plaintiffs argued that the process was stacked against the shipyard, but a federal judge threw out the suit, ruling that the federal courts had no authority to review the decision.

A divided panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed. (Specter v. Garrett, 971 F.2d 936 (3d Cir.1992).) Two of the three judges held that base closure decisions under the Act were indeed subject to judicial review. A third judge dissented, arguing that Congress, in passing the Act, had insulated base closure decisions from judicial review.

That judge was Sam Alito. And his dissent was a rejection of the arguments made by Sen. Specter.

The U.S. Supreme Court vacated the decision and instructed the Third Circuit to reevaluate the case in light of a recently issued Supreme Court decision. But the Third Circuit didn’t take the hint, and reaffirmed its earlier decision. Judge Alito again dissented, for the same reasons as before: Congress had expressly provided that there be no judicial review of base closure decisions. (Specter v. Garrett, 995 F.2d 404 (3d Cir. 1993).)

The case was once again appealed to the Supreme Court. (Dick Cheney, as defense secretary, was the lead named defendant.)

The lawsuit was a big deal to Sen. Specter. He personally argued the case in the Supreme Court, telling the Justices that “failure to allow judicial review here would virtually repudiate Marbury v. Madison … and nearly two centuries of constitutional adjudication.”

The Court was not impressed. On the issue of judicial review, the Court unanimously reversed the Court of Appeals, citing principles articulated in Judge Alito’s second dissent. (Dalton v. Specter, 511 U.S. 462 (1994).)

This is speculation, but my guess is that Arlen Specter has had it in for Sam Alito ever since.

Now, apparently Specter has said some nice things about Alito too. However, I give that zero weight, because I think that he is a weasel among weasels, and would surely and shrewdly seek to hide any personal animus behind a smokescreen of positive on-the-record comments.

There’s a lot of arguing ahead, but the fight is going to come down to some crucial moments in the U.S. Senate which will shift momentum this way or that, and Arlen will be in a position to exercise vital influence. I will be keeping my eye on this Specter long after Hallowe’en is past.

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