Today the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Zedner v. United States. Alito wrote the opinion, his second for the court. The case was about a counterfeiter and his right to a speedy trial. He waived his right "for all time" under the Speedy Trial Act but the court found that the act doesn't allow you to do that. It was unanimous so it must have been straight forward.
Not so fast. In Alito's 19 page opinion, one paragraph is about the act's legislative history, the debates about it in Congress. Alito foudn that that bolstered the opinion even more. But Scalia is opposed to using legislative history in helping decisions. He believes the law is the text of the law and nothing else should be used in deciding cases. So Scalia wrote a 2 page concurring opinion saying he agreed with decision except the paragraph on legislative history.
Legal Times has an article on this. Alito could have easily removed the paragraph, the rest of the opinion was clear, and he must have known that Scalia was bothered by it. But Alito didn't remove it and that act must be a statement in itself. The article says this shows there is "at least some daylight between" Alito and Scalia, and that maybe Alito is closer to Breyer than anyone guessed.
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