Samuel Alito
Samuel Alito was twenty-two when he wrote his hopes into his Princeton yearbook. In 1972, the graduating senior said he wanted to "eventually warm a seat on the Supreme Court". Few yearbook jokes have aged so literally. Alito is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and his name is attached to some of the most argued-over rulings of the early twenty-first century. Those rulings concern guns, health insurance, labor unions and abortion. How does the son of a New Jersey schoolteacher and a state official end up in that seat? What did a career spent prosecuting, arguing and judging teach him before he arrived? And what has he done with the seat since? The answers involve an Italian constitutional court, a draft lottery, a failed Supreme Court nomination, a leaked opinion and a flag. Each of them helps explain why this justice is so closely watched.
In 1913, Antonino Alati sailed from Italy to Philadelphia aboard the SS Ancona. He later anglicized his name to Anthony Alito, and he was the paternal grandfather of a future justice. His son was born Salvatore Alati and became Samuel A. Alito Sr. He came from Saline Joniche, a town in the province of Reggio Calabria. The justice's mother, Rose Fradusco, was Italian American, and her parents came from Palazzo San Gervasio in Basilicata.
Samuel Alito Jr. was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on the 1st of April 1950. His father earned a master's degree at Rutgers University and taught high school. From 1952 to 1984 he served as the first director of the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services. His mother was a schoolteacher. The family lived in Hamilton Township, a suburb of Trenton, and Alito graduated from Steinert High School in 1968 as class valedictorian.
At Princeton, he studied in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and graduated summa cum laude. Political scientist Walter F. Murphy supervised his senior thesis, titled "An Introduction to the Italian Constitutional Court". To research it, Alito left New Jersey for the first time, spending part of his senior year in Italy. Murphy's course on constitutional interpretation shaped him, and he was almost alone among his fellow debaters in knowing the writings of Justice John Marshall Harlan II.
He was not only a bookish student. In 1971 he chaired a student conference called "The Boundaries of Privacy in American Society". It supported curbs on domestic intelligence gathering and anticipated the need for a statute and a court to oversee national security surveillance. Its report also called for decriminalizing sodomy and ending discrimination against gay people in hiring. He led the Debate Panel of the American Whig-Cliosophic Society and skipped Princeton's eating clubs to join Stevenson Hall.
In December 1969, as a sophomore, he drew the low draft lottery number of 32. He joined the Army ROTC program and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve in 1972. His active duty came only after law school, from September to December 1975, at the Signal Officer Basic Course at Fort Gordon, Georgia. He rose to first lieutenant and captain, and he was honorably discharged in 1980.
Yale Law School came next. He edited the Yale Law Journal there and earned his Juris Doctor in 1975.
Judge Leonard I. Garth of the Third Circuit hired Alito as a law clerk in Newark for 1976 and 1977. Alito had also interviewed with Supreme Court Justice Byron White for a clerkship, but White did not hire him. From 1977 to 1981 he was an Assistant United States Attorney in New Jersey. His supervisor in the appeals division was Maryanne Trump Barry, the eldest sister of Donald Trump, who later became a federal judge. Alito prosecuted many drug trafficking and organized crime cases.
From 1981 to 1985 he worked for Solicitor General Rex E. Lee and argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court for the federal government. He lost only two. One loss grew out of Thornburgh v. American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists in 1986. Alito had written a memo urging Solicitor General Charles Fried to avoid attacking the constitutional right to abortion directly. Fried rejected it, and the Court ruled against him.
Alito then moved to the Office of Legal Counsel, serving from 1985 to 1987 as a deputy assistant attorney general under Charles J. Cooper, during Edwin Meese's time as attorney general. In 1986 and 1987 he wrote nearly 470 pages of memoranda urging broader law enforcement and personnel authority for his client. His 1985 job application named William F. Buckley, Jr., the National Review, Alexander Bickel and Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign as influences. It also voiced concern about Warren Court decisions on criminal procedure, the Establishment Clause and reapportionment.
From 1987 to 1990 he was the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. His office had inherited the prosecution of 20 defendants accused of being mob affiliates of Anthony Accetturo. In August 1988, a two-year trial, then the longest federal criminal trial in history, ended with all 20 acquitted. The jury deliberated for less than two days. Alito hired Michael Chertoff as his chief deputy. After an FBI agent was shot in 1988, Alito tried the case himself, paired with the novice Stuart Rabner, and won a conviction. In 1989 he prosecuted a member of the Japanese Red Army for planning a bombing in Manhattan. He also joined the Federalist Society, a group of conservative and libertarian lawyers and students.
On the 20th of February 1990, President George H. W. Bush nominated him to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Garth and Barry had both recommended him. The seat had been vacated by John Joseph Gibbons. The American Bar Association rated him "Well Qualified", and the Senate confirmed him by unanimous consent on the 27th of April 1990. His chambers were in Newark.
On the appeals bench, Alito's most cited early moment came in the Planned Parenthood v. Casey case. The panel's majority struck down the provision requiring married women to tell their husbands before an abortion. Alito dissented and would have upheld the whole law, including that requirement. In United States v. Rybar, he dissented from a ruling on a federal ban on private ownership of submachine guns. He argued the law resembled one the Supreme Court had struck down in United States v. Lopez, and so lay beyond Congress's Commerce Clause power.
His record was not uniformly one-directional. In Saxe v. State College Area School District, he wrote that a public school's anti-harassment policy was overbroad and violated free speech. In ACLU v. Schundler, he wrote that a government holiday display of only religious symbols was impermissible. A mixed display with secular symbols was acceptable if balanced in a generally secular context. In Williams v. Price he joined a unanimous opinion granting habeas corpus to a black state prisoner. State courts had refused to hear a witness who said a juror made derogatory remarks about black people after the trial. In Chittister v. Department of Community & Economic Development, he wrote that Pennsylvania could keep its sovereign immunity against an employee's wrongful termination claim.
He also dissented in Doe v. Groody, arguing that qualified immunity should protect police who strip-searched a mother and her ten-year-old daughter under a warrant covering only a residence. In Chadwick v. Janecka, a unanimous opinion allowed indefinite confinement for civil contempt. The prisoner would not pay a $2.5 million debt to his wife.
Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court would arrive in 2005, after the White House first tried two other names.
On the 1st of July 2005, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced she would retire once a successor was confirmed. President George W. Bush first named John Roberts to her seat. Then Chief Justice William Rehnquist died on the 3rd of September, and Bush moved Roberts's nomination to the Chief Justiceship. On the 3rd of October he nominated Harriet Miers for O'Connor's seat. Miers withdrew on the 27th of October after widespread opposition.
Bush announced Alito on the 31st of October and sent the nomination to the Senate on the 10th of November. The American Bar Association's judiciary committee unanimously rated him "well qualified". Leonard Leo was chosen to help shepherd the nomination through the Senate.
The confirmation hearing ran from the 9th to the 13th of January 2006. Judge Maryanne Trump Barry and Chief Judge Anthony J. Scirica of the Third Circuit testified for him, along with five senior and retired circuit judges. Alito answered about 700 questions over 18 hours. He rejected the use of foreign legal materials in interpreting the Constitution. He declined to take a position on cameras in courtrooms, though he had supported them on the Third Circuit. He told Senator Joe Biden that he endorsed a weak version of the unitary executive theory. He said Congress could outlaw LGBT employment discrimination if it chose to.
The sharpest exchange concerned a conservative group, Concerned Alumni of Princeton. Alito had listed membership on his application to Ronald Reagan's Justice Department. He explained that the form was for a political position and the answer was meant to show conservative credentials. At the hearing he said of the group, "I disavow them. I deplore them." Critics had described its views as racist and sexist.
The American Civil Liberties Union formally opposed him. It had taken that step only three other times, against William Rehnquist, Robert Bork and Brett Kavanaugh. Executive Director Anthony Romero warned that the country needed a justice who would uphold civil liberties.
The Judiciary Committee sent the nomination to the floor on the 24th of January on a 10-8 party-line vote. Democrats compared Alito to Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork. Alito said he would act as an impartial referee and would approach abortion with an open mind. He would not say how he would rule if Roe v. Wade were challenged.
Senator John Kerry's filibuster attempt failed. On the 31st of January 2006, the Senate confirmed Alito 58-42. Every Republican but Lincoln Chafee voted yes. Every Democrat but Tim Johnson, Robert Byrd, Kent Conrad and Ben Nelson voted no, as did Independent Jim Jeffords. He was sworn in that same day as the 110th justice. He was the second Italian American and the 11th Catholic in the Court's history, and the fifth Catholic then serving.
Because he joined mid-term, he missed arguments in most cases already heard that term, and an eight-member Court decided them.
On the 1st of May 2006, Alito delivered his first written Supreme Court opinion in Holmes v. South Carolina. Since the Rehnquist Court, each new justice had been handed a unanimous, uncontroversial opinion to start. This one fit the tradition. He wrote for a unanimous Court ordering a new trial for Bobby Lee Holmes, because South Carolina barred evidence that a third party committed the crime based on the strength of the prosecution's case. His other first-term majority opinions were in Zedner v. United States, Woodford v. Ngo and Arlington Central School District Board of Education v. Murphy.
That first term still looked conservative. In three cases that were reargued, Garcetti v. Ceballos, Hudson v. Michigan and Kansas v. Marsh, he supplied the fifth vote with Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas. He dissented in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld alongside Scalia and Thomas. By 2023, Martin-Quinn scores suggested he was the Court's most conservative justice.
Yet he does not always travel with his allies. On the 1st of February 2006, his first decision on the Court was to refuse Missouri's request to lift a stay of execution for death-row inmate Michael Taylor. The vote was 6-3, with Roberts, Scalia and Thomas on the other side. Early on he was nicknamed "Scalito", but the label fit poorly. In Zedner, Scalia alone declined to join Alito's discussion of legislative history, a source he distrusted. A SCOTUSblog analysis of the 2005 term found the two agreed on the result in 86 percent of shared cases and fully in 75 percent. In the political gerrymandering and campaign finance cases LULAC v. Perry and Randall v. Sorrell, Alito took narrow positions that neither side's bolder camp had pushed. Commentators have said he applies originalism flexibly, reaching conservative outcomes "with plodding consistency" rather than following the method wherever it leads. He calls himself a "practical originalist".
Sometimes he sided with the Court's liberal bloc. In the 2008 case Gomez-Perez v. Potter, he wrote that federal workers who face retaliation for age discrimination complaints can sue for damages. The statute had no explicit retaliation provision, and he inferred the protection anyway.
In free speech cases, he has broken with fellow conservatives. In Snyder v. Phelps, about members of Westboro Baptist Church protesting a military funeral, he wrote the lone dissent. He said the old tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress "constituted a reasonable exception to the First Amendment". In Morse v. Frederick in 2007, he joined Roberts's majority allowing schools to ban speech advocating drug use. He also warned the ruling must not reach political speech, such as debate about medical marijuana.
On social questions he has often stood with Clarence Thomas. The two wrote a separate dissent in Obergefell v. Hodges. In 2020 he wrote a dissent, joined by Thomas, in Bostock v. Clayton County, arguing Title VII does not bar discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. That October he agreed with the other justices in denying the appeal of Kim Davis, the county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
On the 12th of November 2020, he told the Federalist Society that restrictions during the pandemic were the most severe, extensive and prolonged the country had ever seen. He called the pandemic "a Constitutional stress test" and warned about a "loss of individual liberties". Since Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined in 2020, The New Yorker has described him as the embodiment of a conservative majority that is "ambitious and extreme", overruling progressive precedents from the 1960s and 1970s.
In June 2024, a filmmaker posing as a conservative secretly recorded him. On tape he appeared to agree that Christians should win "the moral argument" against the Left and return the country to "a place of godliness". Asked about polarization, he said "one side or the other is going to win".
On the 18th of April 2007, the Supreme Court upheld the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which Congress had passed in 2003. The case, Gonzales v. Carhart, followed Stenberg v. Carhart, which struck down a state ban for lacking a health exception. The Court had changed since then. Roberts had replaced Rehnquist, a dissenter in Roe, and Alito had replaced O'Connor, a supporter of Roe. Kennedy wrote for a five-justice majority, and Alito and Roberts joined it fully. Thomas, joined by Scalia, wrote separately to argue that Roe and Casey should be reversed. Alito, Roberts and Kennedy did not sign on to that. Ginsburg, Souter, Breyer and Stevens dissented.
Fifteen years later, the Court revisited the question. On the 2nd of May 2022, Politico published a leaked first draft of Alito's majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. The draft had circulated among the justices in February. It would overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. On the 24th of June 2022, the ruling came down, mostly identical to the leaked draft, with added replies to the concurring and dissenting opinions. Alito wrote that "Roe was egregiously wrong from the start" and that its reasoning was "exceptionally weak". He said that, far from settling the issue nationally, it had "enflamed debate and deepened division".
He made his first public comments in July 2022, in a keynote address in Rome for Notre Dame Law School's Religious Liberty Initiative. He mocked foreign leaders who had criticized the decision. They included British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose pending resignation he mentioned, and Prince Harry, who had compared the ruling to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In October 2022, at The Heritage Foundation, he said the leak had made some justices "targets for assassination", citing the attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh that year. He also said that "questioning the Court's integrity crosses an important line". Many commentators read that as a reply to Justice Elena Kagan's remarks on overturning precedent.
The leak investigation itself produced a new allegation. In November 2022, it emerged that Rob Schenck, an evangelical minister and former anti-abortion activist, had written to Roberts about an earlier leak. Schenck said he learned the outcome of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby weeks before Alito's opinion was announced in June 2014. He said donor Gayle Wright told him, shortly after she and her husband lunched with the Alitos on the 3rd of June 2014. The New York Times said Schenck's emails from the time strongly suggested he knew the outcome and author early. Alito denied revealing any decision beforehand, though he did not dispute that the lunch happened.
On the 21st of April 2023, Alito dissented when the Court reversed a ruling by Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk that would have banned the drug mifepristone nationwide.
In 1985, Alito married Martha-Ann Bomgardner, a law librarian he first met on his library trips as a law clerk. She left her profession to raise their two children. In early 2025, the second Trump administration appointed one of their sons, Philip, to be general counsel of the Treasury Department. Before his Supreme Court nomination the family lived in West Caldwell, New Jersey. They have since moved to Fairfax County, Virginia.
Since Stephen Breyer retired in 2022, Alito has been the only military veteran on the Court. He is also a longtime fan of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillie Phanatic was a special guest at his Supreme Court welcome dinner.
In 2013, as part of the fallout from the Edward Snowden case, former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice revealed something about 2002 and 2003. The agency, he said, had targeted the phones of Alito, his staff and his family for surveillance.
From 1999 to 2004, Alito was an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark. He taught constitutional law and an original course on terrorism and civil liberties. The school gave him its Saint Thomas More Medal in 1995, and on the 25th of May 2007 he delivered its commencement address and received an honorary law degree. At Duke University School of Law he was a visiting professor. In fall 2011 he taught Current Issues in Constitutional Interpretation, and in summer 2012 he taught in the Master of Laws in Judicial Studies program.
In 2008, the Supreme Court Historical Society invited him to give its annual lecture. He chose the baseball antitrust exemption as his subject, and two journals published it.
On the 20th of June 2023, ProPublica published an investigation into Alito's relationship with billionaire Paul Singer. It focused on a trip the two took to a luxury fishing resort in Alaska. ProPublica suggested Alito violated a federal law requiring justices to disclose most gifts, such as private jet travel. It said he should have recused himself from cases involving Singer and should have reported certain benefits on his 2008 financial disclosure. Legal ethics experts quoted in the story called his conduct "unacceptable".
Shortly before publication, Alito placed an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. It said the source "misleads its readers". He argued that the Court's exemption for "personal hospitality" meant he did not have to disclose private air transport for social trips. Going around reporters' questions took ProPublica's staff by surprise. Critics, including people within the Journal, faulted the piece in part because it was not fact-checked.
The reporting on Alito and Thomas led members of Congress to call for ethics reform, including a Senate Judiciary Committee proposal for a Court code of ethics. In a July 2023 Journal column, Alito wrote that "No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court-period." Senator Chris Murphy replied that Congress has set rules for the Court from the very beginning. In 2024, The Guardian and The New York Times reported that Alito accepted $900 tickets from Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis for a music festival at Saint Emmeram's Abbey.
A second controversy centered on flags. On the 17th of January 2021, an upside-down American flag flew outside Alito's home in Fairfax County. A week earlier, supporters of President Trump had displayed upside-down flags during the January 6 Capitol attack, and the Stop the Steal movement had used them as well. In summer 2023, a Pine Tree Flag flew at his beach house on Long Beach Island. It was a Revolutionary War flag, later adopted by Christian nationalists and carried during the Capitol attack. The New York Times reported both displays, and critics raised questions of impartiality. At the time of the second flag, the Court was considering United States v. Fischer, a January 6 case.
In June 2024, advocacy journalist Lauren Windsor secretly recorded Martha-Ann Alito discussing the episode. She said she wanted a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag, because she had to look across the lagoon at a Pride flag for a month. She added that she would fly a flag reading "vergogna", Italian for shame, once her husband was free of "this nonsense".
Reactions split along party lines. Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin asked Alito to recuse himself from cases involving the Capitol attack or the 2020 election. Representative Steve Cohen introduced a censure resolution. Forty-five representatives, joined by Hank Johnson, signed a letter requesting recusal. Senator Tom Cotton called the controversy an intimidation attempt, while Senator Lindsey Graham called hoisting the upside-down flag "not good judgment".
Alito said he had no part in raising either flag. "My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not," he said. He told Fox News the upside-down flag was a reaction to a dispute with a neighbor who had put up an offensive sign about Trump. He said that neighbor also blamed him for the Capitol attack.
Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor of Massachusetts wrote in The New York Times that the flag-flying was improper. Chief Judge Albert Diaz of the Fourth Circuit then found that Ponsor's remarks hurt public confidence in the courts, and Ponsor apologized.
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Common questions
When did Samuel Alito join the Supreme Court?
The Senate confirmed him 58-42 on the 31st of January 2006. He was sworn in as an associate justice later that day, after President George W. Bush nominated him to the seat vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor.
What was Alito's career before the Supreme Court?
He clerked for a Third Circuit judge and was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in New Jersey. He later worked in the Solicitor General's office and the Office of Legal Counsel, and served as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. In 1990 he became a judge on the Third Circuit.
Which landmark opinions did Alito write for the majority?
They include McDonald v. Chicago in 2010 on firearm rights, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby in 2014 on insurance coverage, and Janus v. AFSCME in 2018 on public-sector union security agreements. His 2022 opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on abortion is the best known.
What did the Dobbs opinion decide?
It overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. A draft was leaked to Politico on the 2nd of May 2022, and the final ruling was issued on the 24th of June 2022.
Why was Alito's confirmation contested?
Democrats on the Judiciary Committee called him a hard-right conservative and questioned his past association with Concerned Alumni of Princeton. He said he disavowed the group. The ACLU also formally opposed his nomination, which it has done only a few times.
What ethics controversies has Alito faced?
They include a 2023 ProPublica investigation into an Alaska fishing trip with Paul Singer and flags flown at his homes that drew calls for recusal. Alito defended his conduct and said he had no part in raising the flags.
All sources
147 references cited across the entry
- 5The Supreme Court: Justice Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr.Supreme Court Historical Society
- 8NewsAlito called 'perfect' studentDecember 13, 2005
- 9NewsA Search for Order, an Answer in the LawDale Russakoff et al. — January 8, 2006
- 10NewsIn Supreme Court Justices' Histories, a Story of Immigration in AmericaAbbie VanSickle et al. — March 31, 2026
- 12NewsIt's inspiring to see Alito's background come to foreground: AlitoMichael Barone — January 18, 2006
- 13Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito returns to Steinert High School for library dedicationSulaiman Abdur-Rahman — September 21, 2018
- 15ThesisAn Introduction to the Italian Constitutional CourtSamuel Alito
- 16Report of the Chairman − Samuel AlitoJanuary 4, 1972
- 18NewsAlito Is Seen as a Methodical Jurist With a Clear RecordNeil A. Lewis et al. — 1 November 2005
- 19NewsAlito Joined ROTC While at PrincetonNovember 3, 2005
- 20Vietnam LotteriesSelective Service System
- 21MagazineA Tiger on the Court: Sam Alito '72 at PrincetonMark F. Bernstein — March 8, 2006
- 22BookSupreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme CourtPenguin Group — 2007
- 23Alito's made mark as conservativeNovember 1, 2005
- 24NewsFrom Alito's Past, a Window on Conservatives at PrincetonDavid D. Kirkpatrick — 2005-11-27
- 25C-SPAN Supreme Court Week – Justices In Their Own Words – Interview With Associate Justice Samuel AlitoSupremecourt.c-span.org — January 31, 2006
- 26BookRegister of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal CourtsU.S. Government Printing Office Washington: 1988 — 1988
- 27NewsInterlocking Friendships Connect a Chairman and a NomineeDavid D. Kirkpatrick — 8 November 2005
- 28NewsAlito Pushed Organized Crime, Drug CasesJeffrey Gold — October 31, 2005
- 30NewsBefore Supreme Court, Alito Had Winning RecordAdam Liptak — 20 November 2005
- 31NewsAlito File Shows Strategy to Curb Abortion RulingDavid D. Kirkpatrick — 1 December 2005
- 32NewsAlito Memos Supported Expanding Police PowersDavid D. Kirkpatrick — 29 November 2005
- 33NewsAlito rejected abortion as a rightBill Sammon — November 14, 2005
- 34Samuel Alito Fast FactsFebruary 3, 2013
- 35NewsALL 20 ACQUITTED IN JERSEY MOB CASEJesus Rangel — 27 August 1988
- 36NewsA Prosecutor Known for His Common Sense and Straightforward StyleDaniel J. Wakin — 2 November 2005
- 37NewsBogus Threats Suspected in Indian CaseSam Howe Verhovek — 22 March 1988
- 38NewsEX-PROSECUTOR FOUND INSANE IN CASE OF FAKED THREATSEthan Schwartz — 11 March 1989
- 39NewsU.S. Links Man With 3 Bombs To a Terror PlotRobert Hanley — 4 February 1989
- 40BookAmerican KompromatC. Unger — Penguin Publishing Group — 2021
- 41Judicial Society Lauds Alito NominationNovember 2, 2005
- 42PN1077 — Samuel A. Alito Jr. — The JudiciaryApril 27, 1990
- 43NewsAlito Sworn In As High Court JusticeFebruary 11, 2009
- 45NewsParties Set Stage for Showdown on Court ChoiceDavid D. Kirkpatrick — October 31, 2005
- 47NewsAlito gets 'well-qualified' rating from American Bar AssociationJanuary 4, 2006
- 48MagazineThe Conservative Pipeline to the Supreme CourtJeffrey Toobin — April 10, 2017
- 49News7 Federal Appeals Judges to Testify to Alito's CharacterSheryl Gay Stolberg — January 7, 2006
- 50NewsFew Glimmers of How Conservative Judge Alito IsAdam Liptak — 2006
- 51NewsDems Slam Alito's Alumni GroupJanuary 12, 2006
- 52NewsAlito disavows conservative alumni groupMark Stefanski — January 13, 2006
- 53NewsACLU TV ads compare Kavanaugh to Bill Clinton, Bill CosbyGregory Krieg — 2018-10-01
- 54Report of the American Civil Liberties Union on the Nomination of Third Circuit Court Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., to be Associate Justice on the United States Supreme CourtAmerican Civil Liberties Union — December 9, 2005
- 55ACLU Opposes Nomination of Judge AlitoAmerican Civil Liberties Union — January 9, 2006
- 56Alito Confirmed as Newest Supreme Court JusticeJanuary 31, 2006
- 57JournalSenateU.S. Government Printing Office — January 31, 2006
- 59NewsAlito Sworn In as Justice After Senate Gives ApprovalDavid D. Kirkpatrick — 1 February 2006
- 60NewsAlito Is Sworn In as Justice After 58-42 Vote to Confirm HimDavid Stout — January 31, 2006
- 61NewsAlito Is Sworn In On High Court: Senators Confirm Conservative Judge Largely on Party LinesCharles Babington — February 1, 2006
- 62NewsAlito sworn in as 110th justiceCharles Hurt — February 1, 2006
- 63NewsAlito sworn in as nation's 110th Supreme Court justiceJanuary 31, 2006
- 64Experts ponder Catholic-majority U.S. Supreme CourtJanuary 31, 2006
- 67NewsSCOTUS for law students: ReargumentsOctober 31, 2014
- 68Behind A Justice's First Opinion: A Tradition Of UnanimityCristina Violante — 2017-06-12
- 69NewsJustices Reinstate Smith's ClaimCharles Lane — 2006-05-02
- 72JournalThe Origin of the Baseball Antitrust Exemption: Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore, Inc. v. National League of Professional Baseball ClubsSamuel A. Jr. Alito — June 15, 2009
- 73JournalThe Origin of the Baseball Antitrust ExemptionSamuel A. Jr. Alito — 2009
- 74Justice Alito casts his first voteBill Mears — February 2, 2006
- 75A Former Congressional Staffer’s Plea to Judges: Do Not Rely on Legislative History((kgw40)) — September 27, 2021
- 78NewsSupreme Court rejects bid by ex-Kentucky clerk who defied gay marriage ruling to block lawsuitKyle Balluck — 2020-10-05
- 80NewsWorkers can't be fired for being gay or transgender, Supreme Court rulesHarper Neidig — June 15, 2020
- 81NewsSupreme Court finds federal law bars LGBT discrimination in workplaceJosh Gerstein et al. — June 15, 2020
- 84Sam Alito: A Civil Man2014-04-21
- 85JournalSam Alito: The Court's Most Consistent ConservativeBrianne J. Gorod — January 24, 2017
- 86NewsOpinion The Criminal N.S.A.Jennifer Stisa Granick — 2013-06-28
- 87The political leanings of the Supreme Court justicesOriana Gonzalez et al. — 2022-06-24
- 88JournalThe Judicial Common SpaceLee Epstein et al. — 2007
- 90NewsJustice Alito's Crusade Against a Secular America Isn't OverMargaret Talbot — August 28, 2022
- 92Alito doubts US right and left can co-exist and wife criticizes Pride flag in secret recordingRobert Tait — 11 June 2024
- 93Supreme Court's Alito appears to back US return to 'godliness' in secret recordingJohn Kruzel — 2024-06-11
- 94Understanding the U.S. Supreme Court’s Abortion DecisionCato Institute — 24 April 2007
- 95NewsSupreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion showsJosh Gerstein et al. — May 2, 2022
- 96NewsIn 6-to-3 Ruling, Supreme Court Ends Nearly 50 Years of Abortion RightsAdam Liptak — June 24, 2022
- 97Alito mocks foreign critics of Supreme Court abortion rulingJosh Gerstein — July 28, 2022
- 98Samuel Alito mocks foreign critics of repealing Roe v. Wade in Rome speechAriane de Vogue — July 28, 2022
- 99Alito says leak of Supreme Court abortion opinion made some justices 'targets for assassination'Melissa Quinn — October 26, 2022
- 100Supreme Court justices spar over court legitimacy commentsOctober 26, 2022
- 101News"Former Anti-Abortion Leader Alleges Another Supreme Court Breach"Jodi Kantor et al. — November 19, 2022
- 10422a901_3d9g.pdfApril 21, 2023
- 109Samuel Alito's Son Has Been Quietly Working for Trump's Treasury DepartmentJose Pagliery — 2026-05-28
- 111MagazineSamuel Alito Does Not Live in AlexandriaAndrew Beaujon — June 11, 2024
- 112Ketanji Brown Jackson's Historic Rise Leaves Just One Military Veteran on the Supreme CourtMatthew Preston — April 15, 2022
- 114A Better-Smelling Phillie Phanatic Helped Welcome Alito to Supreme CourtDebra Cassens Weiss
- 118NewsAlito speaks to Seton Hall gradsMay 27, 2007
- 119Associate Justice Samuel A. AlitoDuke University School of Law
- 120Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the CourtJustin Mierjeski et al. — 2023-06-20
- 121NewsSamuel Alito did not declare gifts from billionaire with case before US supreme courtMartin Pengelly — June 21, 2023
- 122NewsProPublica misleads its readersSamuel A. Jr. Alito — June 20, 2023
- 123Justice Samuel Alito faces scrutiny over trips with GOP donor, pens defensive op-edEric Bazail-Eimil et al. — June 21, 2023
- 124Behind the Scenes of Justice Alito's Unprecedented Wall Street Journal Pre-buttalJesse Eisinger et al. — 2023-06-25
- 125NewsAlito's Reply in a Rival Publication Surprises ProPublicaKatie Robertson — 2023-06-21
- 126NewsSenate Judiciary Committee advances Supreme Court ethics bill on party linesMorgan Rimmer — July 20, 2023
- 127NewsSamuel Alito, the Supreme Court's Plain-Spoken DefenderDavid B. Rivkin Jr. et al. — July 28, 2023
- 128Democratic senator calls Samuel Alito 'stunningly wrong' on Supreme Court ethics controversyPaul LeBlanc — July 30, 2023
- 129The princess and the judge: Samuel Alito’s ties to a German aristocrat who defends the far rightStephanie Kirchgaessner et al. — September 13, 2024
- 130Conservative German Princess Says She Hosted Justice Alito at Her CastleAbbie VanSickle et al. — September 9, 2024
- 132NewsAt Justice Alito's House, a 'Stop the Steal' Symbol on DisplayJodi Kantor — May 16, 2024
- 133(United States Flag Code) "The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."
- 134NewsAnother Provocative Flag Was Flown At Another Alito HomeJodi Kantor et al. — May 22, 2024
- 135John Locke's Appeal to Heaven: Its Continuing RelevanceDave Benner — April 16, 2017
- 136What are the flags Alito is under fire for?Brady Knox — 2024-05-23
- 137Outside Supreme Court justice's home, a Revolution-era flag, now a call for Christian nationalismLeslie Hahner et al. — 2024-05-30
- 139NewsJustice Alito's Wife, in Secretly Recorded Conversation, Complains About Pride FlagAbbie VanSickle — June 10, 2024
- 140Durbin calls for Alito recusal from Jan. 6 cases over upside-down flag that flew at his homeAl Weaver — May 17, 2024
- 141Democrat introduces Alito censure resolution over upside-down flagLauren Sforza — 22 May 2024
- 142NewsHouse Democrats call on Justice Alito to recuse after flag controversyJustin Jouvenal et al. — May 21, 2024
- 143Justice Alito's home flew a US flag upside down after Trump's 'Stop the Steal' claims, a report saysLindsay Whitehurst — Associated Press — May 17, 2024
- 144Graham on upside-down flag at Alito home: 'Not good judgment'Filip Timotija — 21 May 2024
- 146Alito and the upside down flag: What the symbol means to 'stop the steal' crowdMaureen Groppe — May 17, 2024
- 147MagazineSamuel Alito Can't Even Lie Properly About That Upside-Down FlagTalia Jane — May 17, 2024
- 148NewsJudge Apologizes for Criticizing Alito's Ethics Over FlagsJacqueline Thomsen — December 17, 2024
- 149NewsJudge Broke Rules by Criticizing Justice Alito During Flag FlapJesse Bravin — December 17, 2024
- 150BookSo Ordered2025-11-03