More on Landrigan

Please read Linda Greenhouse's article about the Shriro v. Landrigan decision over at the Times. She is excellent. I want her job.

Anyway, after reading that, I was reminded of something I left out of my last post: the Alito factor. This case probably would not have gone the way it did if O'Connor was still on the Court. Indeed, a case a few years ago entitled Rompilla v. Beard had O'Connor siding with the liberals in a very similar case involving the constitutional right of death-row inmates to be represented by competent attorneys. Interestingly enough, Alito, in his capacity as an appeals court judge at the time, actually wrote the opinion that O'Connor helped to reverse in Rompilla. So, it seems that the Court is shifting noticably to the right thanks to Alito.