I don’t think it can be said that Alito wore his conservatism on his sleeve more than Roberts at the respective hearings or elsewhere. Prior to his confirmation, the Archives released several of Roberts’s memoranda from his days as a political appointee in the Reagan administration as an aide to William French Smith and in the White House counsel’s office. They contained all kinds of good conservative stuff. You can do your own research, as I am sure you will after this post, and see what he wrote and how it was characterized by the media and his opponents. Alito became a political appointee at the Justice Department after serving in a career position in the Solicitor’s office. As I was in charge of clearing Justice Department political appointees “back in the day,” his resume was so lacking in conservative credentials of any kind that I asked him to prepare a memorandum spelling them out. That was the memorandum so liberals tried to use as a hammer against him, to no avail. As a United States attorney, Alito’s record was without controversy, political or otherwise. And as an appellate judge, his record was mainstream conservative, for lack of a better description. And as I said, he no more wore his conservatism on his sleeve during his confirmation hearings than Roberts, as best I could tell.