Psephological Reasons Why Alito Should be Rejected by the Senate
The United States Supreme Court has nine members. The nation has 50 states and about 290 million people. That works out to about 5 states and 30 million people per Justice.
Both Sam Alito and Antonin Scalia come from New Jersey. They are both conservative, anti-choice Roman Catholics. Scalia comes from Trenton and Alito comes from Hamilton, which abuts Trenton. Hamilton is the suburban town to which the white people fled when Trenton started becoming overwhelmingly black.
Sam Alito is a nice, well meaning, competent judge. But two conservative Roman Catholic justices from Trenton, New Jersey is just too narrow a political base to support 22% of the lifetime appointed Supreme Court, if one wants the Supreme Court to command the support and respect of the nation.
If Alito is confirmed, the prestige of the Supreme Court, already low, will plummet further. Between the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision which held, "There is no right to vote for president under the constitution," and the Kelo decision in June 2005 which held that governments can use eminent domain to take a person's property for another private individual, almost every controversial decision is being decided against the clear reading of the constitution.
Alito's confirmation will only set this pattern in stone.