In his 15 years on the federal appeals court in Philadelphia, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/samuel_a_alito_jr/index.html?inline=nyt-per) has provided just a few direct statements on the intense legal debate over how power should be shared between the federal government and the states. To some scholars, those occasions have been revealing and significant and suggest that if confirmed to the Supreme Court, Judge Alito might be an aggressive leader in expanding state authority at the expense of the federal government.



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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/politics/politicsspecial1/06federalism.html

Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/samuel_a_alito_jr/index.html?inline=nyt-per) has reliably favored big-business litigants as he has pushed the federal appeals court in Philadelphia in a conservative direction.
A review of dozens of business cases in which Judge Alito has written majority or dissenting opinions or cast the decisive vote shows that, with few exceptions, he has sided with employers over employees in discrimination lawsuits and in favor of corporations over investors in securities fraud cases.


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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/05/politics/politicsspecial1/05legal.html

Judge Alito's broad reading of the freedom of speech and press clauses of the First Amendment stands in contrast with his narrower interpretation of other constitutional rights, including the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable searches and the Sixth Amendment's guarantees of fair trial rights for criminal defendants.


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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/12/national/12first.html