[tag=IN | tag=PRP] □ | □ | □
[tag=IN | tag=PRP] [□] | □ | □
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" There 's a new chief justice and a new court for the first time in a long time , " said Orin S. Kerr , a George Washington University law professor and former Supreme Court clerk who frequently comments about the court.Roberts is " making himself open and present in the legal world , " Kerr said . Given the emotional appeal of reunification , it is likely that the North-South dialogue will continue , despite the problems involved ; however , the tensions that developed in late 2002 have , for the time being , derailed any significant further reunification talks . In his first major case dealing with the constitutionality of prison terms , Chief Justice John Roberts joined Ginsburg 's majority opinion.By contrast , the other new justice , former federal prosecutor Samuel Alito , issued a strong dissent . " Comments and questions from the justices left little indication of how they might rule , with the court 's main concern seeming to be that , even if the justices grant MedImmune a right to sue Genentech , patent holders might simply ask licensees to sign away their right to sue . The conservative push on social issues is just what Democrats and liberals , concerned about the future of Roe v. Wade , the 1973 case that recognized a right to abortion , warned against during confirmation hearings for the two Bush appointees now on the court - - Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.In response , Roberts and Alito pledged to take due account of stare decisis , the rule that says the court should avoid overruling past decisions.So this term will be closely watched not only for the results the court reaches , but for how it reaches them . One clerk then makes an initial recommendation on a case , with the justices having the final say . " That struggle is evident on the court 's docket , in which most of the death penalty cases come from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit , which covers Texas and much of the South , and the San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit . Maybe they are trying to draw some lines down the middle . The figures below show which side he voted for in the different kinds of cases , how often he voted with the court majority and how his views stack up against judges nationally . With Senate confirmation hearings scheduled to start next week , Bush administration officials and conservative allies working to win Alito 's approval say he fits within the judicial mainstream ; some Democrats and liberal advocacy groups trying to defeat his nomination say he is an ideologue.Neither characterization is completely accurate.Instead , the analysis , along with interviews of scholars who study the courts , shows that Alito takes consistently restrictive stances on some social issues and criminals ' rights but does not differ substantially from the typical judge in other areas.Overall , the analysis shows , Alito does not disagree with majority opinions more frequently than most federal appeals judges do in similar cases . Just as the justices scrutinized Virginia 's system for carrying out the death penalty several years ago , they are examining four cases from Texas this year , including the three heard yesterday.The number of capital cases is not unusual for the court , those who follow the issue say . Korea limited its foreign contacts during this period and later resisted , longer than China or Japan , trade with the West , which led to its being called the Hermit Kingdom .