NOTETHENEWERTEXTUALISM:JUSTICEALITO’SSTATUTORYINTERPRETATIONI. INTRODUCTIONDespitehisfifteen‐yeartenureasajudgeontheU.S.CourtofAppeals for the Third Circuit, Justice Samuel Alito remainedsomething of a mystery when he was nominated to the Su‐premeCourtin2005.Hislowercourtopinionsweredescribedas “reserved,” much unlike the sometimes polemicalscreedspenned by other members of the bench.1 Justice Alito’s seem‐inglyconservative viewsasanappellatejudgepromptedsomecommentators to compare him to Justice Antonin Scalia,2 butthese analysts made little headway in defining Justice Alito’slegalmethodologywithanymeasureofprecision.Morethanayear after his confirmation, legal scholars, the media, and theAmericanpublicstillhavemanyquestionsaboutJustice Alito.This Note attempts to answer one of those questions: What isJusticeAlito’smethodofstatutoryinterpretation?In 1990, Professor William Eskridge documented the rise ofthe“newtextualism”thatJusticeScaliabroughttotheSupremeCourtuponhis elevationin1986.3Thenewtextualism,Profes‐sor Eskridge explained, “posits that once the Court has ascer‐tained a statute’s plain meaning, consideration of legislativehistorybecomesirrelevant.”4ThisNotecontendsthat,notwith‐standing the frequent comparisons to Justice Scalia, Justice1.E.g., Stephen Henderson, Alito Backed Strip‐search of 10‐year‐old in Drug Case,ST.LOUISPOST‐DISPATCH,Nov.6,2005,atA2.2.See, e.g., Peter Baker, Alito Nomination Sets Stage for Ideological Battle, WASH.POST, Nov. 1, 2005, at A1 (“Alito has drawn comparisons to Scalia, to the pointthat some have dubbed him ‘Scalito’—as if he were the next generation of theSupreme Courtʹs most powerful conservative intellect.”). But see JAN CRAWFORDGREENBURG, SUPREME CONFLICT 293–94 (2007) (reporting that Justice Alito hasfound the nickname ‘Scalito’ to be inappropriate and “based mostly onethnicity”).3.SeeWilliamN.Eskridge,Jr.,TheNewTextualism, 37UCLAL. REV.621(1990)(coiningthephrase“newtextualism”).4.Id.at623.984 HarvardJournalofLaw&PublicPolicy [Vol.30Alito brings a markedly different flavor of textualism to theCourt. For him the text of the statute still reigns supreme, butlegislativehistorycanbeusedtoestablishthecontextinwhichthe statute should be read. Just as Justice Scalia’s new textual‐ism has influenced the Court since the 1980s,5 Justice Alito’s “newertextualism” might very well make a similar impact ontheRobertsCourt.OneofJusticeAlito’sfirstopinionsasamemberoftheCourtservesasthecatalystforthistheory.InZednerv.UnitedStates,6Justice Alito used a federal statute’s legislative history to con‐firmhisinterpretationoftheunambiguousstatutorytext.7Thismove—unorthodox for many textualists—prompted a concur‐ring opinion by Justice Scalia vigorously protesting the use oflegislative history.8 Part II of this Note analyzes Zedner, usingthe dueling opinions of Justices Scalia and Alito to showcasethree frameworks through which one can view legislative his‐toryandtosetthestageforthisNote’sthesis.Becausetextual‐ism in practice often demands more than what textualism al‐lowsintheory,Part III.Asurveysthecoretenetsoftextualism,while Part III.B reviews one of Justice Alito’s typical statutorycasesfromtheThirdCircuitandconcludesthat,atleastinsim‐plecases,JusticeAlitoexhibitstextualistbehavior.Part IV explains and defends Justice Alito’s newer textual‐ism.PartIV.AdescribesJusticeAlito’suseoflegislativehistoryby comparing two of his Third Circuit cases; Part IV.B recon‐ciles his use of legislative history in the chronologically‐latercase with the core tenets of textualist theory. That case servesas an example of the newer textualism. Part IV.C defends thenewer textualism against Justice Scalia’s critique of legislativehistory.Finally,PartIV.DthenarguesthatJusticeAlito’snewertextualismisnormativelysuperiortoJusticeScalia’spractice. As a disclaimer, this Note does not attempt to demonstratethattextualism is superiorto othermethods ofstatutory inter‐pretation.Norisitsanalysismeanttoserveasacomprehensivereview of all of Justice Alito’s opinions
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