POLS 4720 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy
5 May 2018
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In Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, Justice Alito joined in Justice Scalia’s
dissent that the Clean Air Act was not created to address global climate, which is another small
win for conservatives.
Conservative justices tend to want to expand police power. In Salinas v. Texas, the
conservative justices, including Justice Alito, voted the Fifth Amendment does not protect a
defendant’s refusal to answer questions pre-arrest or pre-Miranda questioning. The justices
contended that the individual must request self-incrimination protection to allow officers to take
steps such as making sure that there is a danger of self-incrimination. In Florida v. Jardines,
Justice Alito dissented, arguing that implied consent of a front-door visitor is not limited to a
certain category of visitors and should extend to police officers even for investigatory purposes.
In ideologically divided cases, Justice Alito, Justice Scalia, Justice Roberts, and Justice Thomas
generally vote together, with Justice Kennedy being the swing vote to win. However, in
Maryland v. King, Justices Alito, Thomas, Roberts, and Kennedy voted together to include a
DNA test as part of the normal arrest procedure not requiring a search warrant. Justice Scalia fell
with the more liberal justices. It should be noted that Justice Scalia is normally a conservative
vote, and his dissent here is a rare exception.
A 2011 Cambridge study focusing on ideologies in non-unanimous decisions backs up
this analysis. The study states that at first Alito seemed to be a liberal justice, but later revealed
Justice Alito’s conservative leaning. The study goes on to show that Justice Alito falls to the
right of the political spectrum, incredibly similar to Justice Roberts, but not as far right as Justice
Thomas or Justice Scalia (Jessee). However, there are no hard lines in ideology. Many other
factors play into a Supreme Court Justice’s opinion. For example, in Youngblood, Jr. v. West
Virginia, Justice Alito took up the liberal justice side and agreed with the majority that the
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Document Summary
In massachusetts v. environmental protection agency, justice alito joined in justice scalia"s dissent that the clean air act was not created to address global climate, which is another small win for conservatives. Conservative justices tend to want to expand police power. In salinas v. texas, the conservative justices, including justice alito, voted the fifth amendment does not protect a defendant"s refusal to answer questions pre-arrest or pre-miranda questioning. The justices contended that the individual must request self-incrimination protection to allow officers to take steps such as making sure that there is a danger of self-incrimination. Justice alito dissented, arguing that implied consent of a front-door visitor is not limited to a certain category of visitors and should extend to police officers even for investigatory purposes. In ideologically divided cases, justice alito, justice scalia, justice roberts, and justice thomas generally vote together, with justice kennedy being the swing vote to win.
