Alito Goes to Work

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

After a month-long hiatus the Supreme Court was back in session today with Sam Alito officially sitting on the bench for the first time.

It was a rather uneventful day for the Court; it ruled unanimously that a hippie cult can use a hallucinogenic tea from Brazil because, as Chief Justice Roberts put it, there's no compelling interest to bar them from using it. They consume the stuff because they say it "brings them closer to God." Well have fun with that then.

The Court also decided today to hear an abortion case next term. It involves a Nebraska ban on partial-birth abortion, which involves the delivering of a human baby before crushing its skull.

O'Connor was previously the fifth vote in upholding the lower court's decision that struck it down, but now Alito will have the opportunity to join the more conservative justices and bring it back.