The debate over Samuel Alito’s nomination has focused thus far on those thoughtful and weighty issues generally thought of as constitutional matters. These issues, important though they may be, are but a fraction of the Court’s total caseload. In its last session more than a third of the cases the Court agreed to hear had important economic and business implications, the majority of which involved issues unrelated to constitutionality. Therefore, it is worth considering Judge Alito’s record on commercial cases. It turns out that he earns high marks on this front. Because President Calvin Coolidge was right when he said “the chief business of the American people is business,” the nomination of Judge Alito to the United States Supreme Court is good news.

A Supreme Court nominee’s view on economic matters is equal in importance to those concerning what might be termed “life” or “liberty” issues. Anti-business rulings from the nation’s highest court impose tremendous costs on the American economy. Innovation is impeded as risk-taking declines and legal and regulatory compliance costs increase. Any mistake – no matter how innocent, no matter how small – has within it the seed of a multimillion dollar jury award, meaning costly and otherwise unreasonable preventive actions must be taken to safeguard against potential disaster.

In recent years, America’s courtrooms have transformed into a litigation Law Vegas, a place where sharp lawyers and a sympathetic jury can deliver up jackpot justice. These big payouts, intended by juries to send a message to corporate wrongdoers, often line the pockets of the lawyers instead of their clients and drain resources from the productive economy. This is something we all pay for. According to the Manhattan Institute’s authoritative analysis, the cost of the tort liability system to American business exceeds $200 billion a year, which means a tort tax of about 2% on all Americans.

Judging from his record on the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Judge Alito understands the business of business. He is pro-business not because of any predetermined bias on his part but because of the manner in which he evaluates the facts in the cases before him, applying existing law to the set of facts at hand. This is a fair, predictable evaluative method. Commerce thrives when legal uncertainty is controlled and kept to a minimum; certainty makes it easier to plan ahead and to reduce exposure to risk that, in turn, encourages investment and economic growth.

Judge Alito’s record on business cases is strong. In 15 years as an appeals judge, he has routinely found for the enforceability of contracts as written, something that puts him on the wrong side of most plaintiffs’ attorneys. Judge Alito “appears to be a judge who recognizes how markets work and how businesses operate in a litigation environment,” an American Enterprise Institute scholar, Ted Frank, says. A counsel for the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute, Hans Bader, praises Judge Alito’s grasp “of the regulatory and legal challenges facing business and an appreciation of the value of free markets.” This is not an abstract point – it is a matter of critical significance for the economic life of the nation. State and federal courts, particularly the United States Supreme Court, are frequently called upon to interpret and apply federal laws governing business and to issue rulings that potentially cost the economy billions.

Judge Alito’s position that a contract or a law means what it says is reassuring. In her later years on the court, Justice O’Connor – whom Judge Alito has been named to replace – began to look to exogenous, inappropriate sources of legal authority, including foreign laws and U.N. conventions, to support her opinions. With Europe in particular looking to replicate some of the more economically harmful aspects of the American civil justice system, it is encouraging that the nominee eschews such notions.

The threats to the American free enterprise system are real. Taxes, regulation, and unfair tort decisions all combine to make it more expensive to do business in the United States. Risk must be allowed to pay reward; it must not be merely an excuse to drive up costs in the tort system. Continued growth and productivity depend on it. With Judge Samuel Alito on the Supreme Court, American business will have a strong advocate for the defense of property and the right to engage in commerce.

Mr. Roff is vice president of the Free Enterprise Fund, a non-profit organization advocating for pro-growth public policies.