Samuel Alito

Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. was born on April 1, 1950, in Trenton, New Jersey, into an Italian American family whose story embodies the promise of the American dream. His father, Samuel Alito Sr., had emigrated from Italy as a child, learned English, earned a college degree, and eventually rose to become the director of the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services. His mother, Rose, was a schoolteacher. Growing up in the suburban community of Hamilton Township, the young Alito was shaped by his family’s deep appreciation for the opportunities that America afforded to those willing to work hard and play by the rules. This upbringing instilled in him a profound respect for the rule of law and the constitutional order that makes such opportunity possible.

Alito distinguished himself academically from an early age. He graduated from Steinert High School in 1968 as class valedictorian and went on to Princeton University, where he majored in politics and wrote a senior thesis on the Italian Constitutional Court. At Princeton, Alito was drawn to questions of constitutional interpretation and the proper role of the judiciary in a democratic society, interests that would define his entire career. He graduated in 1972 and proceeded to Yale Law School, where he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal and earned his Juris Doctor in 1975. During his time at Yale, Alito developed a legal philosophy rooted in textualism and a careful reading of the Constitution as written, skeptical of judicial activism and the tendency of courts to legislate from the bench.

After law school, Alito served as a law clerk for Judge Leonard I. Garth on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He then entered the Department of Justice, serving as an assistant United States attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1977 to 1981. In this role, he prosecuted a wide range of criminal cases, gaining firsthand experience with the practical realities of the justice system. His work earned him recognition as a meticulous and principled prosecutor who was committed to applying the law fairly and without political bias.

In 1981, Alito moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as assistant to the solicitor general under Rex Lee, arguing cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of the federal government. He subsequently served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel under Attorney General Edwin Meese from 1985 to 1987, a period during which the Reagan administration was actively working to reshape the federal judiciary around principles of originalism and judicial restraint. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed Alito as the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, where he served with distinction until 1990, overseeing major prosecutions involving organized crime, drug trafficking, and public corruption.

President George H. W. Bush nominated Alito to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1990, and he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate. During his fifteen years on the appellate bench, Judge Alito earned a reputation as a careful, scholarly jurist whose opinions were grounded in close textual analysis and a reluctance to extend the law beyond what the legislature had intended. His colleagues and the attorneys who appeared before him recognized him as a judge who was thoroughly prepared, intellectually rigorous, and deeply respectful of the adversarial process. Some observers began referring to him as “Scalito,” a portmanteau linking him to Justice Antonin Scalia, though Alito’s jurisprudence was distinctly his own, marked by a practical rather than purely theoretical approach to constitutional questions.

On October 31, 2005, President George W. Bush nominated Alito to the Supreme Court of the United States to replace the retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. His confirmation hearings were contentious, as Senate Democrats pressed him on issues ranging from abortion to executive power, but Alito’s calm demeanor, encyclopedic command of the law, and measured responses ultimately prevailed. He was confirmed by a vote of 58 to 42 on January 31, 2006, and has served as an Associate Justice since that date.

On the Supreme Court, Justice Alito has emerged as one of the most influential voices of the conservative wing. He has described himself as a “practical originalist” who seeks to apply the Constitution according to its original public meaning while remaining attentive to real-world consequences. His majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, holding that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and returning the regulation of abortion to the elected representatives of the people in each state. This decision was hailed by many constitutional conservatives as a landmark restoration of democratic self-governance on one of the most contested issues in American public life.

Alito also authored the majority opinion in McDonald v. City of Chicago in 2010, extending the individual right to keep and bear arms to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment, and in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. in 2014, which held that closely held corporations could not be compelled under the Affordable Care Act to provide contraceptive coverage that violated the owners’ sincerely held religious beliefs. Both decisions reflected Alito’s commitment to the protection of individual rights and religious liberty against overreaching government mandates.

Throughout his tenure on the Court, Alito has also been a vigorous defender of free speech, particularly in cases involving political and religious expression. He has written or joined opinions protecting the rights of individuals and organizations to participate in the political process without government interference, and he has been a consistent voice against the erosion of religious liberty in an increasingly secular legal culture. His dissent in Obergefell v. Hodges warned that the majority’s decision to constitutionalize same-sex marriage could be used to marginalize Americans who hold traditional views of marriage, a prediction that many religious conservatives believe has been borne out in subsequent years.

Justice Alito’s jurisprudence consistently emphasizes the importance of federalism, the separation of powers, and the principle that unelected judges should not substitute their policy preferences for those of the people’s elected representatives. His opinions are characterized by exhaustive historical research, careful attention to the text of statutes and constitutional provisions, and a healthy skepticism of claims that the Constitution contains rights that no previous generation of Americans ever recognized. For Americans who believe that the Constitution means what it says and that the judiciary must not become an instrument of social engineering, Justice Alito remains a towering figure in the ongoing effort to preserve the republic of laws that the Founders envisioned.