Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Associate Justice since 2006. He previously served fifteen years on the Third Circuit, and earlier as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey and in the Reagan Justice Department.
- Role
- Associate Justice
- Joined the Court
- 2006 (appointed by George W. Bush)
- Martin–Quinn score
- 2.5 (latest term)
- Decisions participated in
- 1,361 (Spaeth, 1946–2025 span)
- Prior roles
- Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; U.S. Attorney, District of New Jersey; Office of Legal Counsel / Solicitor General's office
How their votes have evolved, issue by issue
- Criminal procedure: 117 votes, 21% on the liberal side. Possible shift: more conservative relative to the Court, OT2005–OT2014 vs OT2015–OT2025.
- Free speech & press: 60 votes, 37% on the liberal side.
- Federalism: 56 votes, 57% on the liberal side.
- Immigration: 55 votes, 20% on the liberal side.
- Voting & elections: 42 votes, 24% on the liberal side.
- Executive & agency power: 34 votes, 65% on the liberal side.
- Death penalty: 28 votes, 7% on the liberal side.
- Religion: 19 votes, 47% on the liberal side.
- Guns & the Second Amendment: 17 votes, 24% on the liberal side.
- Race & affirmative action: 11 votes, 9% on the liberal side.
- Abortion & reproductive rights: 9 votes, 11% on the liberal side.
- Sexual orientation & gender identity: 8 votes, 0% on the liberal side.
Before the Court
As a lower-court judge on the Third Circuit (1990–2006), Alito wrote 425 opinions we could find on CourtListener: 301 for the court, 42 concurring and 82 dissenting. Most often on: Criminal procedure (53), Immigration (28), Death penalty (14), Executive & agency power (8). Selected passages appear in the “In their own words” timelines on this page.
How they question at oral argument
Over OT2023–OT2025 (2,037 substantive questions and remarks), Alito's questions most often probed consequences and hypotheticals (37%), the text (17%), the facts and record (15%). Themes are assigned by a language model (75% agreement with independent reference labels). Compare all nine Justices.
Public statements, writings & appearances
A curated, sourced timeline of 28 speeches, articles, interviews, and public statements — each with a summary and a link to the original source. The interactive version with filters and full-text search loads above.
- — AP interview on emergency appeals, rhetoric toward the Court and recusal, at the release of So Ordered (Associated Press (interview in chambers, Sept. 29, 2026))
Alito said the rising volume of emergency applications is unhealthy but largely beyond the Court's control, tying it to presidents governing by executive order and aggressive lower-court rulings. He criticized inflammatory rhetoric toward the Court, rejected a partisan 'MAGA' label for his rulings, and called his recusal from a climate liability case a judgment call.
rhetoric is a different story
Topics: emergency docket, executive orders, public confidence, recusal
- — So Ordered: An Originalist's View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country (Hachette Book Group (Basic Liberty))
Alito's first book, a collection of his speeches and writings, sets out his originalist approach developed over two decades on the Court. It discusses threats to free speech and religious freedom and reflects on faith, the nature of law, and American culture.
Topics: originalism, free speech, religious liberty, book tour
- — Life, Liberty & Levin interview on originalism and the Constitution (Fox News, Life, Liberty & Levin)
Speaking with Mark Levin, Alito described reading the Constitution according to its original public meaning rather than a meaning that shifts with political preferences, and said the republic depends on citizens' commitment to the Constitution. He criticized the Left's use of the Court for political goals.
Topics: originalism, constitutional interpretation, book tour
- — Fox News Sunday interview with Shannon Bream on Court-reform pressure and retirement (Fox News Sunday)
Alito said the justices do not discuss Court-reform proposals among themselves, but he is personally concerned that they are attempts to pressure the Court toward particular rulings. He addressed the Dobbs leak and said speculation about his retirement is unpleasant and that he has no timetable.
Topics: court legitimacy, dobbs leak, judicial independence
- — The Alito Court: A rare interview with the influential Supreme Court justice (CBS News (Jan Crawford))
In a CBS News interview timed to his first book, Alito discussed Dobbs and the leak of the draft opinion, security threats, his view that Obergefell is settled, emergency applications, ethics controversies and his friendship with Justice Breyer. CBS's profile describes him as a coalition-builder despite his public image.
We are not part of any political movement.
Topics: judicial role, dobbs aftermath, emergency docket, collegiality
- — Even Originalists Make Mistakes (The Wall Street Journal (Opinion))
Alito recasts his self-description from 'practical originalist' to 'working judicial originalist' and catalogs six errors he says originalist judges make: an insecure defensive crouch that refuses to evaluate outcomes; demanding explicit text while ignoring principles inferable from constitutional structure; over-abstracting provisions beyond what ratifiers would have understood; digging for historical artifacts to avoid hard judgment calls; blending originalist and non-originalist rules while presenting the result as originalist; and equating original public meaning with one philosopher's thought. A seventh path, academic originalism, he treats as legitimate for scholars but usually not for judges, who are constrained by precedent and the need to hold a majority.
it doesn't eliminate the need for judges to exercise judgment
Topics: originalism, constitutional interpretation, judicial role, stare decisis
- — Supreme Court's Alito Will Stay Even If Democrats Win Senate (Bloomberg Law (Greg Stohr))
In an interview with Bloomberg News, Alito said he will remain on the Court even if Democrats win the Senate, dismissing speculation that he would retire to let Trump fill his seat. The interview also covered his new book So Ordered, his originalism, and Democratic proposals to overhaul the Court.
I intend to stick around through this term
Topics: court life, originalism, judicial role
- — Wall Street Journal interview: 'practical originalism' and its critics (Wall Street Journal (interview by James Taranto, conducted in Alito's chambers))
Alito described himself as a practical originalist, rejecting the idea that constitutional history yields an automatic answer in every case and saying judges must still identify the governing principle and its level of generality. He rejected the charge that he votes his policy preferences, said he would not vary votes to appear balanced, and stated he is staying on the Court for another term.
I vote in every case the way I think the case should be decided.
Topics: originalism, constitutional interpretation, judicial role, court criticism, partisanship
- — Conversation at the Fifth Circuit Judicial Conference (Fifth Circuit Judicial Conference, The Woodlands, Texas (in conversation with Prof. Aaron Nielson))
In a roughly 75-minute conversation, Alito said oral argument has become 'entirely different' since 2006, with too much speechifying and too few real questions, but concluded it remains worthwhile after trying a term of silence. He described his opinion-drafting process, said judging has become a harder job because of security problems that intensified after the 2022 Dobbs draft leak, and previewed a forthcoming collection of his speeches distinguishing originalist judges from originalist scholars.
What we're doing is practical work.
Topics: oral argument, judicial security, judicial process, originalism, clerkships, dobbs leak
- — Politico Magazine interview with James Rosen (Politico Magazine (conducted in Alito's chambers))
In a rare interview published by Politico Magazine, Alito cast Dobbs as the capstone of his tenure and 'indebted to Antonin Scalia,' said Scalia 'would have been appalled' by today's coarse politics, and reflected wistfully on the Court since Scalia's death — fueling widespread retirement speculation.
Even since Nino died, things are so different. I so often wish he were still here.
Topics: originalism, precedent, court legitimacy
- — Conversation with Msgr. Laurence Spiteri at the Jubilee of Justice (Palazzo della Cancelleria, Rome (Vatican Jubilee of Justice))
At a Vatican Jubilee of Justice event, Alito said religious liberty is 'embattled today' though threats in America pale beside persecution of Christians abroad, endorsed building mercy into the drafting, enforcement, and sentencing stages of law, and described the nine-member Court's sharp but never personal disagreements.
Unfortunately, religious liberty is embattled today.
Topics: religious liberty, judicial role
- — Justice Alito: Dobbs, a Color-Blind Constitution, and the Balancing of Power (Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson) (Hoover Institution / Fox Nation (recorded at the Supreme Court))
In a 64-minute interview, Alito defended Dobbs as correcting an 'egregiously wrong' decision, called himself a 'practical originalist,' argued the Constitution is colorblind in support of Students for Fair Admissions, criticized universal injunctions, and lamented declining support for religious freedom.
I think that the Constitution is colorblind.
Topics: originalism, religious liberty, executive power, precedent
- — Secretly recorded remarks at the Supreme Court Historical Society gala (Supreme Court Historical Society annual dinner, Washington, D.C.)
In audio surreptitiously recorded by filmmaker Lauren Windsor posing as a Catholic conservative, Alito said of America's ideological divide that fundamental differences cannot be compromised, and agreed with her suggestion that the country should return 'to a place of godliness'; ABC News noted it had not independently authenticated the audio.
One side or the other is going to win
Topics: polarization, religion and politics, secret recording
- — Public letter to Senators Durbin and Whitehouse declining recusal over flag incidents (Supreme Court of the United States (chambers letter))
Responding to Senate demands that he recuse from Trump v. United States and other January 6-related cases, Alito wrote that his wife alone flew the upside-down American flag and the 'Appeal to Heaven' flag, invoked the Code of Conduct's presumption that a justice must sit unless disqualified, and rejected the recusal requests.
I had nothing whatsoever to do with the flying of that flag
Topics: recusal, flag controversy, january 6, judicial ethics
- — Commencement address at Franciscan University of Steubenville (Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio)
Addressing a record class of 896 graduates at the Catholic university, Alito drew on the Constitution, St. John Henry Newman, and Rodney Dangerfield to urge graduates to engage in open discourse, hold fast to fixed principles and traditions, and engage the world boldly.
Topics: commencement, religious education, tradition, open discourse
- — Wall Street Journal interview: Congress cannot regulate the Supreme Court (The Wall Street Journal (interview by David B. Rivkin Jr. and James Taranto))
In a lengthy WSJ interview, Alito said Congress lacks constitutional authority to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court, noting the justices comply with disclosure statutes voluntarily, and suggested other justices share his separation-of-powers view.
No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court
Topics: separation of powers, judicial ethics, congressional oversight
- — Wall Street Journal op-ed: 'ProPublica Misleads Its Readers' (The Wall Street Journal (opinion pages))
In a preemptive op-ed published hours before ProPublica's investigation, Alito defended his 2008 Alaska fishing trip with billionaire Paul Singer, arguing the private-jet seat fell within the personal-hospitality disclosure exception and that recusal from Singer-related cases was not required.
Topics: judicial ethics, disclosure, paul singer, recusal
- — Joseph Story Distinguished Lecture conversation (The Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C.)
In a moderated conversation with Heritage's John Malcolm, Alito called the Dobbs draft leak a grave betrayal of trust that made the justices in the majority targets for assassination, defended the Court's legitimacy against critics, and criticized the free-speech climate at law schools.
targets for assassination
Topics: dobbs leak, court legitimacy, originalism, law school free speech
- — Keynote address, Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit in Rome (Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Initiative, Palazzo Colonna, Rome)
In his first public appearance after Dobbs, Alito surveyed global threats to religious freedom—citing persecution of Yazidis, Copts, Nigerian Christians, and Uyghurs—identified concentrated power and growing secular skepticism as the chief dangers, and joked about foreign leaders' criticism of the Dobbs decision.
religious liberty is fragile
Topics: religious liberty, international religious freedom, secularism, dobbs
- — 'The Emergency Docket' lecture defending the shadow docket (Notre Dame Law School, McCartan Courtroom)
In a livestreamed Notre Dame lecture, Alito defended the Court's emergency-orders practice, calling 'shadow docket' criticism silly and misleading, likening emergency rulings to emergency-room treatment, and rejecting claims that the Court times rulings to evade scrutiny.
catchy and sinister term 'shadow docket'
Topics: shadow docket, emergency docket, court legitimacy, media criticism
- — Keynote address, Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention (Federalist Society 2020 National Lawyers Convention (virtual))
In a virtual keynote later published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Alito warned that COVID-19 had brought previously unimaginable restrictions on individual liberty, argued religious liberty and gun rights risk becoming second-class rights, and decried intolerance for dissenting views in law schools.
religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right
Topics: religious liberty, free speech, covid restrictions, second amendment, law school orthodoxy
- — Address to Advocati Christi on religious liberty (Advocati Christi (Catholic lawyers' guild), Madison, New Jersey)
Speaking to a Catholic lawyers' group, Alito said America's commitment to religious liberty is being tested, recalled historic hostility toward Catholics, and said his Obergefell dissent's prediction that traditional-marriage adherents would be labeled bigots was coming to pass.
A wind is picking up that is hostile to those with traditional moral beliefs
Topics: religious liberty, catholicism, obergefell, traditional beliefs
- — Conversations with Bill Kristol (Episode 32) (Conversations with Bill Kristol / Foundation for Constitutional Government)
In a wide-ranging taped interview, Alito discussed his path to the Court, the justices' conference and opinion process, his free-speech dissents in Stevens, Snyder, and Alvarez, and his Obergefell dissent and concerns about substantive due process.
Topics: free speech, substantive due process, obergefell, court procedure, biography
- — Wriston Lecture: 'Let Judges Be Judges' (Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, New York City)
In the Manhattan Institute's annual Wriston Lecture, Alito described judging as a practical craft learned from experience and argued over the proper, limited role of judges under the Constitution.
Topics: judicial role, judging as craft, constitutional interpretation
- — Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing testimony (U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary (S. Hrg. 109-277))
Over hearings held January 9-13, 2006, Alito testified on stare decisis, executive power, and reapportionment, and distanced his 1985 job-application statements from how he would rule, saying he would approach abortion precedent with an open mind and that no person is above the law.
Topics: confirmation hearing, stare decisis, executive power, abortion, 1985 application
- — Remarks accepting nomination to the Supreme Court (The White House, Cross Hall)
Standing with President Bush at the announcement of his nomination, Alito spoke briefly about his gratitude, his fifteen years on the Third Circuit, and his view of the judge's limited role.
I am deeply honored to be nominated to serve on the Supreme Court
Topics: nomination, judicial role, biography
- — Personal qualifications statement, application to the Reagan Justice Department (U.S. Department of Justice / Office of Presidential Personnel)
In a 1985 application for a deputy assistant attorney general post, Alito described himself as a lifelong conservative shaped by William F. Buckley Jr., National Review, and the Goldwater campaign, and cited his Solicitor General's office work arguing against racial quotas and abortion rights.
the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion
Topics: abortion, conservatism, reagan administration, pre court record
- — Reagan-era Justice Department writings (National Archives release) (National Archives (Record Group 60, Department of Justice))
Ahead of his 2006 confirmation hearing, the National Archives released hundreds of pages of records from Alito's service in the Reagan Justice Department, including 1985 memoranda from his time as an assistant to the Solicitor General on abortion-litigation strategy.
Topics: solicitor general, reagan administration, abortion, pre court record