Samuel Alito

Quick facts

Key positions

Biography

Samuel A. Alito, Jr. is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, confirmed in 2006 after George W. Bush nominated him to replace Sandra Day O’Connor. The son and grandson of Italian immigrants, Alito grew up near Trenton, New Jersey, studied at Princeton and Yale Law School, and built a conservative legal career through the Reagan Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey, and sixteen years on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals — where his record earned him the nickname “Scalito” for its resemblance to Justice Antonin Scalia’s jurisprudence. His confirmation, by a 58–42 vote after a failed Democratic filibuster, shifted the Court rightward by removing a reliable swing vote. Alito is a long-time member of the Federalist Society, the conservative legal network that shaped his career, and a beneficiary of the judicial-appointment infrastructure built by Federalist Society figure Leonard Leo.

Alito wrote the Court’s 2022 majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, ending the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion. The opinion called Roe “egregiously wrong from the start” and held that “the Constitution makes no reference to abortion.” A draft of the opinion leaked to Politico in May 2022, weeks before the final ruling largely matching it was issued on June 24, 2022. Alito has also authored or joined other consequential conservative rulings, including the majority opinions in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014), and Brnovich v. DNC (2021), and he joined the 5–4 majority in Citizens United v. FEC (2010).

Alito has drawn sustained ethics scrutiny. In July 2008 he flew to Alaska on a private jet chartered by hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer for a fishing vacation at a lodge charging more than $1,000 a day — a flight that ProPublica reported (June 20, 2023) would have cost over $100,000 to charter independently. The trip, organized by Leonard Leo, was never disclosed in Alito’s financial filings; ProPublica reported it in June 2023, and Alito published a pre-emptive Wall Street Journal op-ed defending himself hours before the story ran. In 2014, Alito declined to recuse and voted with a 7–1 majority in a case involving Singer’s hedge fund, which was ultimately paid $2.4 billion (per ProPublica, June 20, 2023) in its long-running dispute with Argentina. In a July 2023 Wall Street Journal piece, Alito argued that “Congress has no authority to create a ‘code of conduct’ for the Supreme Court.”

In May 2024, the New York Times (Jodi Kantor reporting) documented that an upside-down American flag — a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement — flew at the Alitos’ Alexandria, Virginia home in January 2021, days after the January 6 Capitol attack, and that an “Appeal to Heaven” flag associated with Christian-nationalist movements and carried by January 6 rioters flew at the family’s New Jersey beach house in 2023. Alito attributed both displays to his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, and a former neighbor and other outlets disputed his timeline of the Virginia incident. On May 29, 2024, Alito formally refused congressional requests to recuse from Trump v. United States (presidential immunity) and Fischer v. United States (January 6 obstruction); he did not recuse from either, joining the majorities in both. A December 2024 report by the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Democratic majority cited the Singer trip, the flag incidents, and the recusal refusals as evidence of institutional ethics failure at the Court.

Sources

1. “Samuel A. Alito, Jr.” — Federal Judicial Center — https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/alito-samuel-jr (birth, education, positions, confirmation)
2. “Samuel A. Alito, Jr. | Biography, Jurisprudence, & Facts” — Britannica — https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-A-Alito-Jr (biographical background)
3. “Alito Took Unreported Luxury Trip With GOP Donor Paul Singer” — ProPublica — June 20, 2023 — https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court (2008 Singer trip, non-disclosure)
4. “Samuel Alito tells Congress to stay out of Supreme Court ethics controversy” — CNN — July 28, 2023 — https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/28/politics/samuel-alito-congress-ethics-rules-wall-street-journal/index.html (Wall Street Journal ethics op-ed)
5. “Justice Alito declines to recuse himself in Jan. 6-related cases” — NPR — May 29, 2024 — https://www.npr.org/2024/05/29/g-s1-1617/justice-alito-flags-jan-6 (flag controversies, recusal refusal)
6. “Matchmaker Leonard Leo Helps Unite Billionaires With Supreme Court Justices” — The Nation — https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/leo-alito-court-curruption/ (Federalist Society / Leonard Leo network placement)