Samuel Alito

His father came from a village in Calabria and ended up running the research arm of the New Jersey legislature — the first director of the state Office of Legislative Services, a post he held from 1952 to 1984. Samuel Alito Jr. was born in Trenton in 1950 and grew up in suburban Hamilton Township, valedictorian at Steinert High School, then Princeton, then Yale Law School. He clerked on the Third Circuit, prosecuted organized crime as an assistant U.S. attorney in Newark, and argued 12 cases for the federal government. In 1985, applying for a Justice Department job under Ronald Reagan, he wrote that he personally believed the Constitution does not protect a right to abortion. Two decades later that application was read back to him at his confirmation hearing.

George H. W. Bush put him on the Third Circuit in 1990, and the Senate confirmed him by unanimous consent. He sat in Newark for 16 years. When George W. Bush needed a nominee for Sandra Day O'Connor's seat — Harriet Miers had withdrawn on October 27, 2005, under opposition from the president's own side — he announced Alito four days later. The hearings ran five days in January 2006. John Kerry attempted a filibuster and failed. The Senate confirmed Alito 58 to 42 on January 31, one of the closest votes of the modern era.

On June 24, 2022, Alito delivered the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey and ending a federally recognized constitutional right after 49 years. His reasoning was that the Fourteenth Amendment protects only rights deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition, that abortion is not among them, and that the question belonged to elected legislatures. Roe, he wrote, was egregiously wrong from the start. The three dissenters — Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan — answered that the Court's precedents on bodily autonomy, family and procreation are interwoven, and that removing one imperils the rest. A draft had leaked — Politico published it on May 2, 2022, the first such leak in the Court's modern history. In January 2023 the Court's own investigation reported it could not identify the source.

In May 2024 The New York Times reported that an inverted American flag had flown outside his Virginia home in January 2021, and a Pine Tree flag at his New Jersey beach house in 2023 — both displayed during the January 6 Capitol attack. Alito said his wife flew them and he did not, and declined to recuse himself from cases arising out of January 6. Democrats demanded recusal, most Republicans defended him. His name is on other major opinions too — McDonald v. Chicago, which applied the Second Amendment to the states, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, and Janus v. AFSCME. He is still on the bench, and the verdict on him is contested and unsettled.

Samuel Alito's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

• Planned Parenthood v. Casey (Third Circuit) case
  Concurring in part and dissenting in part — he would have upheld Pennsylvania's spousal notification requirement 1991
• McDonald v. Chicago case
  Majority opinion applying the Second Amendment to the states 2010
• Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case
  Majority opinion on religious objections to the contraceptive coverage mandate 2014
• Janus v. AFSCME case
  Majority opinion ending compulsory fees for public-sector union nonmembers 2018
• Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case
  Majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey 2022

• April 1, 1950 aged 0 Born in Trenton, New Jersey His father, an immigrant from Calabria, became the first director of the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services.
• 1968 aged ~18 Graduates from Steinert High School as class valedictorian
• December 1969 aged 19 Draws lottery number 32 and joins Army ROTC at Princeton Commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Reserve in 1972 and honorably discharged in 1980.
• 1972 aged ~22 Graduates from Princeton summa cum laude His senior thesis was an introduction to the Italian Constitutional Court.
• 1985 aged ~35 Writes in a Justice Department job application that the Constitution does not protect a right to abortion The Personal Qualifications Statement was put to him at his confirmation hearing 20 years later.
• April 27, 1990 aged 40 Confirmed to the Third Circuit by unanimous consent Nominated by George H. W. Bush in February. He sat in Newark for 16 years.
• October 31, 2005 aged 55 Nominated to the Supreme Court four days after Harriet Miers withdrew The seat was Sandra Day O'Connor's.
• January 31, 2006 aged 55 Confirmed 58 to 42 and sworn in the same day The 110th justice, and the second Italian American to sit on the Court.
• June 24, 2022 aged 72 Delivers the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization A draft had leaked to Politico on May 2. The Court reported in January 2023 that it could not identify the source.

• George W. Bush b. 1946
  43rd president who led the country after the September 11 attacks and launched wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. nominated by
• John Roberts b. 1955
  Chief justice during major decisions on health care, elections, executive power, abortion, and administrative law. served under
• Clarence Thomas b. 1948
  Long-serving justice whose originalist opinions have strongly influenced modern conservative jurisprudence. joined in Dobbs
• Anthony Kennedy b. 1936
  Thirty years as the Supreme Court's median vote, and the author of both Obergefell and Citizens United. rejected his Casey position
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1933–2020
  Supreme Court Justice whose advocacy for gender equality made her a cultural icon. dissented from his opinions
• Antonin Scalia 1936–2016
  Justice whose advocacy of originalism and textualism transformed American legal interpretation. preceded him as the Court's Italian American justice