Samuel Alito

Details

Birth

April 1, 1950 · Trenton, New Jersey

Death

Living

Law school

yale university

Prior experience

U.s. circuit court judge

Biography

Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. (born April 1, 1950) is an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, to Italian-American parents, Alito grew up in Hamilton Township and graduated from Steinert High School in 1968. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University in 1972, where he wrote his senior thesis on the Italian Constitutional Court, and received his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1975, serving as an editor of the Yale Law Journal. After law school, Alito clerked for Third Circuit Judge Leonard I. Garth, then worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1977 to 1981. He subsequently served in the Reagan administration's Department of Justice, holding positions in the Office of Legal Counsel and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General. In 1987, he was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, where he served for 15 years before his Supreme Court appointment. During his confirmation hearings, Alito faced scrutiny over his conservative judicial philosophy and membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton. As a Supreme Court Justice, Alito is considered part of the Court's conservative wing, adhering to an originalist approach to constitutional interpretation. His most significant opinions include writing the majority decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), which overturned Roe v. Wade, and McDonald v. Chicago (2010), extending Second Amendment protections to state and local governments. He has consistently favored religious liberty claims, supported executive power, and taken restrictive views on abortion rights and expansive interpretations of free speech protections, particularly for conservative viewpoints.

Notable opinions

• Burwell v. Hobby Lobby
• Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization