Samuel Alito

In order to have a society in which public issues can be openly and vigorously debated, it is not necessary to allow the brutalization of innocent victims.

Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. (born April 1, 1950) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and has served on the court since January 31, 2006.

Quotes

• The First Amendment, I think, is the jewel of our Constitution.
  • Alito: Threat to Judicial Independence at Historic High, by Michael Scholl [2006-10-04].

• I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government has argued in the Supreme Court that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.
  • "Application to become deputy assistant AG", Washington Times, (1985)

• Our country as a whole, no less than the Hastings College of Law, values tolerance, cooperation, learning, and the amicable resolution of conflicts. But we seek to achieve those goals through "[a] confident pluralism that conduces to civil peace and advances democratic consensus-building," not by abridging First Amendment rights.
  • Dissenting, CLS v. Martinez, 130 S. Ct. 2971, 3015-16 (2010).

• In order to have a society in which public issues can be openly and vigorously debated, it is not necessary to allow the brutalization of innocent victims.
  • Dissenting, Snyder v. Phelps, 131 S. Ct. 1207, 1229 (2011).

• You can't say that marriage is the union between one man and one woman. Until very recently, that's what the vast majority of Americans thought. Now it's considered bigotry.
  • On marriage and specifically Gay marriage. Speech before the Federalist Society, November 2020

Misattributed

• The separation of church and state has been a cornerstone of American democracy for over two hundred years. Getting rid of it was long overdue.
  • Invented in Andy Borowitz (6 May 2014), "In Landmark Decision, Supreme Court Strikes Down Main Reason Country Was Started", The New Yorker, retrieved on 2014-05-18 .
  • Satirizing his decision in Greece v. Galloway.

About Samuel Alito

• Justice Samuel Alito minced no words in his public evisceration of the Supreme Court’s 6-3 Murthy v. Missouri decision to greenlight the Biden administration’s flagrant First Amendment violations. …While most of his colleagues mocked self-censorship, Alito and his fellow dissidents accurately classified Big Tech and the Biden administration’s coordinated attempt to suppress online speech, especially during the media-fueled panic over Covid-19, as a “serious threat to the First Amendment” that warrants intervention. …Alito concluded his written thrashing with a warning that the threat of government censorship “did not come with expiration dates” or lose steam “merely because White House officials opted not to renew them on a regular basis.”
  On the contrary, he wrote that Facebook and other Big Tech companies’ publicized promise to “continue reporting to the White House and remain responsive to its concerns for as long as the officials requested” suggests this will be an ongoing losing battle for Americans who want to speak their minds on social media.
  • Jordan Boyd, "Alito: Americans Will Regret Court’s Allowance Of ‘Blatantly Unconstitutional’ Censorship", The Federalist (June 26, 2024)

• Your record raises troubling questions about whether you appreciate the checks and balances in our Constitution -- the careful efforts of our Founding Fathers to protect us from a government or a president determined to seize too much power over our lives.
  • Sen. Dick Durbin, (D-ILL) at Alito's confirmation hearing.

• “If you were good friends [with businessman Paul Singer], what were you doing ruling on his case?” said Charles Geyh, an Indiana University law professor and leading expert on recusals. “And if you weren’t good friends, what were you doing accepting this?” referring to the flight on the private jet.
  • Charles Gardner Geyh quoted in "Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court", Pro Publica (June 20, 2023)

• You have obviously had a very distinguished record, and I certainly commend you for long service in the public interest. I think it is a very commendable career and I am sure you will have a successful one as a judge.
  • Sen. Ted Kennedy, speaking on Alito's nomination to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Committee On The Judiciary, U.S. Senate, Hearing, [1990-04-05].

• I believe Mr. Alito has the experience and the skills to be the kind of judge the public deserves – one who is impartial, thoughtful, and fair. I urge the Senate to confirm his nomination.
  • Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), speaking on Alito's nomination to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, Congressional Record, [1990-04-27], p. S5281.

• The confirmation of Sam Alito as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey is testimony to the commitment he has shown and the success of his efforts as a law enforcement official. I am confident that he will continue to do all he can to uphold the laws of this nation with the kind of determination and vigor that has been his trademark in the past.
  • Former Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ), Congressional Record, [1987-12-08], p. S17427.

• There was the abortion brief and also the brief in the Wygant case. I had a big hand in writing it, and so did Sam Alito, who had this marvelous phrase saying that a particular African American baseball player would not have served as a great role model if the fences had been pulled in every time he was up at bat, a point which some people were greatly offended by because they thought it to be pamphleteering. I thought it was entirely appropriate.
  • Charles Fried (Solicitor General 1985 to 1989) in 2003.

• Of course he's against abortion.
  • Rose Alito, Samuel Alito's 90-year-old mother in an Associated Press, "On abortion, a nuanced stand" telephone interview from her Hamilton, N.J., home by Warren Richey, Christian Science Monitor, (November 2, 2005).

• There's an outside chance that Roberts might assign [the opinion] to Alito, but, you know, [it's] Alito's second year on the Court; he should still do the tax and ERISA cases for a few more years. I think this case is too intersting for him.
  • Georgetown University law professor Richard Lazarus, in a panel discussion on Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency, C-SPAN2, [2006-11-29] (at approx. 60:00).
  • The panel, held a few hours after oral argument, was asked which justice would write the controlling opinion when the case was decided.

• the people's right to have their day in court is being foreclosed. Corporate victories in federal and state elections work hand in hand with this mission by assuring the nomination of more commercially-responsive judges such as Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Scalia and Alito, with the same being true in many states.
  • Ralph Nader, Breaking Through Power (2016)

• When Justice Samuel Alito wrote the leaked draft of his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, he cited the conservative argument that someone who places a newborn for adoption today will likely find the baby a good home because of high demand.

In a footnote, he cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report from 2008 describing the domestic supply of infants available for adoption as “virtually nonexistent.”

• If Roe falls, adoption may become 'replacement' for abortion. One adoptee argues it shouldn't (May 20, 2022)

• Samuel 'no ladies at Princeton' Alito
  • Jen Sorensen, Slowpoke: One nation, oh my God! (2008)

See also

• Samuel Alito
• Amy Coney Barrett
• Stephen Breyer
• Neil Gorsuch
• Ketanji Brown Jackson
• Elena Kagan
• Brett Kavanaugh
• Sonia Sotomayor
• John Roberts
• Clarence Thomas