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the mask joins the community together in the experience of its beauty and allure . " Here is where Alito really takes his stand , " said Kenneth L. Manning , a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth who has studied the voting behavior of other appellate judges.Because Supreme Court justices are free to disregard precedent , Alito 's decisions are an imperfect barometer of how he might rule if he succeeds Sandra Day O'Connor , a pivotal member of the high court . The garage is closed until Thursday as the city replaces the controlling software , city spokesman Bill Campbell said.Dennis Clarke , the chief operating officer at Robotic Parking , acknowledged the operational problems , but said the garage has operated with " 99.99 percent efficiency . " Congress has made the judgment that it is far preferable to ensure that fetal demise takes place before any delivery begins , " Stevens noted sardonically . 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 . " Roberts might be convinced by stare decisis , " the legal principle that favors sticking with established precedent , Karlan said.Liberal Justices John Paul Stevens , David H. Souter , Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer were in the majority in Stenberg and are unlikely to switch.Conservative Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas are firm opponents of Roe v. Wade , the 1973 case that legalized abortion nationwide.But Kennedy has been known to change his position on big issues . " When the court takes up the federal abortion law , it will be considering a statute that was passed by a large majority in Congress and signed by Bush in 2003 - - and then struck down by every lower federal court that has considered it.The lower courts ruled that the law is incompatible with a 5 to 4 ruling by the Supreme Court in 2000 that held that a similar state law , from Nebraska , was unconstitutional.In that case , known as Stenberg v. Carhart , the court said the statute could be read to prohibit other procedures and lacked an exception to protect a mother 's health , creating an " undue burden " on the right to abortion first recognized in Roe.The Republican-controlled Congress included an exception to save a mother 's life . Yet he takes no side in the Republican vs. Democrat argument over who is more to blame for the recent warfare .