From AP
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Samuel Alito
is poised to join a tradition of pragmatic justices who have moved the Supreme Court to the right in measured steps.<snip>
Instead, legal experts say, the hearings may have provided more understanding of Alito's influence on the court's changing dynamics when he replaces retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the decisive vote on abortion, affirmative action and the death penalty.<snip>
For example, while Alito will fit comfortably in the conservative camp of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, legal experts see him as being closer to Scalia than Thomas in his incremental approach to overturning what the court has done before.
"Alito's not going to be a radical," said Christopher Wolfe, a political science professor at Marquette University.
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