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" If you look at all the briefs , they are all written to Justice Kennedy , " said Benjamin W. Bull , chief counsel of the Alliance Defense Fund , an antiabortion legal organization.Solicitor General Paul D. Clement quotes Kennedy 's Stenberg dissent 22 times in his briefs defending the federal law , which was adopted by a wide margin in Congress and signed by Bush in 2003.Bush 's conservative appointees , Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr ., have thin track records on abortion , and some court-watchers say they may not be sure to vote to support the ban.As chief justice , Roberts might have institutional concerns if the court appears to abandon a major abortion ruling that has been on the books for only six years . 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 . His remarks were reported in the Gannett Co. ' s Journal-News.The court 's decision to halt the recount of Florida 's disputed election results , thus giving Bush the state 's electoral votes , has been heavily criticized as an example of the court overstepping its bounds and , worse , being driven by politics.Rather than let the recount take place and leave state officials and possibly Congress to determine the outcome of the election , the court 's five conservative justices decided to intervene.They eventually overturned a ruling of the Florida Supreme Court and halted the recount of the state 's disputed election results 36 days after the voting . " He explained that it was difficult to get people to focus on the needs of the judiciary and January 1 was historically a slow news day , " Roberts wrote . To shed light on Alito 's views , The Washington Post reviewed these non-unanimous cases , divided them into categories and compared them with a sample of other federal appellate judges around the country . Touchy Consumers , Wicked Stepmothers and Sexy TV " Consumer Contamination : How Consumers React to Products Touched by Others " by Jennifer J. Argo , Darren W. Dahl and Andrea C. Morales . This version has been corrected.Dutch Citizen Pleads Not Guilty to Terrorism ChargesMan Accused in Iraq Bombings Is First Alleged Insurgent Prosecuted in U.S. Criminal CourtsBy Dan EggenWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday , January 30 , 2007 ; A04A Dutch national born in Iraq pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges in federal court yesterday , marking the start of the first U.S. criminal prosecution of an alleged Iraqi insurgent.Wesam al-Delaema , 33 , is charged with four counts of conspiracy and two other crimes for allegedly belonging to a group called " Mujaheddin From Fallujah , " which constructed and deployed roadside bombs aimed at U.S. forces in Iraq . Such a record is typical of Republican appointees on federal appeals courts in discrimination cases , the area of the law in which national studies show GOP-appointed judges differ most from their Democratic-appointed counterparts.Still , in a few areas of the law , Alito 's record resembles that of the average U.S. appellate judge . " It 's just like physical exercise - - when we are approaching the new year we will buy a pass for the gym and go fervently in January and then slack off , " Willis said . " The California sentencing law that the court strikes down today is indistinguishable in any constitutionally significant respect " from the remedy the court offered in 2005 , Alito wrote.From the beginning , Kennedy and Breyer have opposed the court 's resistance to systems that allow judicial discretion.The debate may seem procedural rather than substantive , but the case that arrived at the court shows the impact.Police officer John Cunningham was convicted in 2003 of molesting his young son , who had come to live with him and his girlfriend . His attorneys had argued that the statute of limitations on the crime had passed before he was arrested in January 2000 . The North 's official Korean Central News Agency accused Washington of conducting more than 110 reconnaissance flights over its territory in January , and accused South Korea of carrying out more than 70 similar spy flights .