Justice Samuel Alito
Supreme Court of the United States
Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr., was born in April 1950 in Trenton, New Jersey. He earned an undergraduate degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, then received his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. While at Princeton, he took time to study in Italy, writing a thesis on that country’s legal system. He was a member of the school’s Army ROTC program, attending a six-week basic training camp at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Signal Corps and assigned to the U.S. Army Reserve. He served a period of active duty after graduating from Yale, and was a captain when he received an honorable discharge.
After law school, Alito clerked at the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, before becoming an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, a position he held for four years. He was named Assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General, where he argued a dozen cases before the Supreme Court on behalf of the federal government. Four years later, he became Deputy Assistant Attorney General during the tenure of Edwin Meese, later becoming the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey. He taught classes in constitutional law as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark.
Alito was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to be a judge on the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate and received his commission in April 1990. In 2005, President George W. Bush nominated Alito to a seat on the United States Supreme Court, replacing retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. After a failed filibuster attempt, the Senate confirmed him. He assumed office on January 31, 2006.
He is married to Martha-Ann Bomgardner Alito, and they have two children. He is Catholic.
In the News…
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito questioned the attorney representing a transgender athlete who is challenging a state law excluding biological males from female sports under Title IX. The associate justice asked the counselor what it meant to be a “boy or a girl or a man or a woman” for the reasons of Equal Protection.
After the attorney acknowledged that a school may have separate teams for a category of students classified as boys and a category of students classified as girls, Justice Alito queried, “How can a court determine whether there’s discrimination on the basis of sex without knowing what sex means for equal protection purposes?”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Justice Alito today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable Justice Samuel Alito
Supreme Court of the United States
1 First Street NE
Washington, DC 20543
