It’s Alito

President Bush is set to announce Samuel Alito Jr. as his nominee for the O’Connor vacancy at 8am EST today say news sources.

Alito is a conservative, anti-abortion judge who has (fairly or otherwise) earned the nickname “Scalito” - for his Scalia-like conservatism. According to White House officials quoted here, “Bush believes that Alito has not only the right experience and conservative ideology for the job, but he also has a temperament suited to building consensus on the court. A former prosecutor, Alito has experience off the bench that factored into Bush’s thinking.”

His judicial record on abortion is most prominently represented by his dissenting opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals - saying that the constitution required a married woman to notify her husband before having an abortion.

I’m not too happy about this…

[UPDATE 5:01am] Bush stumbles over his words while confirming reports it’s Alito.

[UPDATE 5:04am] SCOTUSBlog has an interesting commentary on Alito’s record. Bush totally flopped a joke in his speech, “Sam and I know you can’t go wrong marrying a librarian.” NO laughter!

[UPDATE 5:06am] Alito’s making his speech. Vital role of the Supreme Court…blah blah blah…vividly remember arguing my first case…blah blah blah…solemn responsibility that goes with service as a Federal judge…”care and restraint. Always keeping in mind the limited role that the courts play”…thanking his family…talking about his immigrant background…wife Martha…children are “pride of my life”…”I look forward to working with the Senate in the confirmation process”…”thank you, Mr. President.”

[UPDATE 5:10am] Alito is one of the top three on the Christian Legal Society SCOTUS recommendation list.