Has Alito ever voted to the left of the overall Supreme Court?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Like Gorsuch does occasionally on things like Native American issues and once in a blue moon even Clarence Thomas does if it's something where some quirk of his idiosyncratic legal philosophy leads for him to side with the liberals, and I noted that in that case involving a California law restricting pork production ACB's concurrence was arguably the furthest left opinion expressed by any justice on the case...but it seems Alito only rules with the liberals if it's a unanimous case. Has he ever dissented in a way that's to the left of the court, or even ruled with the liberals with other conservatives dissenting?

[Donerail]

Depends on how you define "left." The case that comes to mind for me is Snyder v. Phelps, where Alito was the one justice to suggest the Westboro Baptist Church's speech was not protected by the First Amendment. Certainly possible to read that as the left-wing position now (a 'hate speech' exception), even if it wasn't at the time.

[Vosem]

Like Gorsuch does occasionally on things like Native American issues and once in a blue moon even Clarence Thomas does if it's something where some quirk of his idiosyncratic legal philosophy leads for him to side with the liberals, and I noted that in that case involving a California law restricting pork production ACB's concurrence was arguably the furthest left opinion expressed by any justice on the case...but it seems Alito only rules with the liberals if it's a unanimous case. Has he ever dissented in a way that's to the left of the court, or even ruled with the liberals with other conservatives dissenting?

There's only one very famous case where Alito was the fifth liberal vote (possibly I'll be able to think of more if I think about it for a while), but it's a doozy: he joined the four liberals in Gundy v. United States in 2019 to preserve the non-delegation doctrine.

[Skill and Chance]

Hmmmm... there was a pregnancy discrimination case in the mid 2010's where everyone was shocked he ruled in favor of the pregnant plaintiff while Kennedy ruled in favor of the corporation, but that one was 6/3 and his concurrence was to the right of the Breyer majority opinion Roberts joined. 

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Depends on how you define "left." The case that comes to mind for me is Snyder v. Phelps, where Alito was the one justice to suggest the Westboro Baptist Church's speech was not protected by the First Amendment. Certainly possible to read that as the left-wing position now (a 'hate speech' exception), even if it wasn't at the time.

Similarly, in US vs. Stevens, he was the only dissenter in an 8-1 case involving a federal law that criminalized producing images of animal cruelty. A man filming dogfights got 37 months in prison and sued on free speech grounds.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Like Gorsuch does occasionally on things like Native American issues and once in a blue moon even Clarence Thomas does if it's something where some quirk of his idiosyncratic legal philosophy leads for him to side with the liberals, and I noted that in that case involving a California law restricting pork production ACB's concurrence was arguably the furthest left opinion expressed by any justice on the case...but it seems Alito only rules with the liberals if it's a unanimous case. Has he ever dissented in a way that's to the left of the court, or even ruled with the liberals with other conservatives dissenting?

There's only one very famous case where Alito was the fifth liberal vote (possibly I'll be able to think of more if I think about it for a while), but it's a doozy: he joined the four liberals in Gundy v. United States in 2019 to preserve the non-delegation doctrine.

Oh yeah, that actually kind of makes sense though because the plaintiff was a sex offender and definitely not sympathetic to anyone who took a very "law and order" type position, which a Republican of his type would.

[NewYorkExpress]

Alito just joined a majority that included the three liberals, Kavanaugh and Roberts in Counterman.

[David Hume]

Like Gorsuch does occasionally on things like Native American issues and once in a blue moon even Clarence Thomas does if it's something where some quirk of his idiosyncratic legal philosophy leads for him to side with the liberals, and I noted that in that case involving a California law restricting pork production ACB's concurrence was arguably the furthest left opinion expressed by any justice on the case...but it seems Alito only rules with the liberals if it's a unanimous case. Has he ever dissented in a way that's to the left of the court, or even ruled with the liberals with other conservatives dissenting?

There's only one very famous case where Alito was the fifth liberal vote (possibly I'll be able to think of more if I think about it for a while), but it's a doozy: he joined the four liberals in Gundy v. United States in 2019 to preserve the non-delegation doctrine.

As I pointed out before, in Gundy there are two competing interest for the right, the libertarian small government and the conservative tough on crime. Alito always prioritize the latter.