[airedale]

#1. Judge Alito pledged not to rule on any case involving Vanguard for his initial term. As was pointed out in the hearings repeatedly by Republicans, there is no one on the planet who would try to bend the term "initial" to mean 12 years.

I know, but why did they extract this pledge? It's highly unusual for that specific a pledge.

Also what the heck does "first term" mean since federal judges are appointed for life. Was there something going on with Vanguard at the time that the senators were concerned with at the time? Did Alito or his wife (or her law firm) have ties to Vanguard that we don't know about that caused the Senate to extract this pledge?

[Peach]

Democrats try to find ANYTHING to destroy a candidate and NOTHING they have said today or yesterday about Vanguard should give you cause for concern.

If any of the questions or concerns you posed were accurate, don't you think the Rats would have aired them today? Such as "we were concerned because your wife had ties to Vanguard" sort of thing.

But they didn't do that. I would imagine the reason they even got the initial pledge about Vanguard is because he has substantial stock with that mutual fund and the Rats love to try and make anyone who owns stock (except themselves, of course) look suspect.

[okie01]

Also what the heck does "first term" mean since federal judges are appointed for life.

In court-speak, each year is considered a "term".

Recall that, as the summer approaches, the SCOTUS is said to have "X cases to decide before the end of its term".

[RightFighter]

The phrase they used on the questionaire was not "first term". It was "initial period of service." Alito argued with The Swimmer about this at length today - stating that he didn't know exactly what is meant by "initial period of service," but that he was quite sure that 12 years later would no longer be considered in the "initial period" of his service as a judge.

At any rate, none of it matters, since he revisited his non-recusal and decided to retroactively recuse himself and asked the court to have a different panel of judges review the case.