Samuel Alito is an American jurist who has served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 2006. Following Antonin Scalia, he is the second Italian-American justice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Alito has described himself as a “practical originalist” and is a member of the Supreme Court’s conservative wing.

He is known for his textualist and originalist approach to constitutional interpretation, having authored or joined key opinions on issues including the Second Amendment, abortion rights, and religious liberty. Alito has written majority opinions in the landmark cases McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010) on firearm rights, and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) on abortion. 

Samuel Alito Biography

Early Life 

Samuel Alito (Samuel Anthony Alito Jr.) was born on April 1, 1950, in Trenton, New Jersey, United States. As of 2026, he is 76 years old, and his zodiac sign is Aries. Alito attended Steinert High School in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. After completing his BA degree at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1972, he earned a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1975. In 1971, while at Princeton, Alito chaired an event focused on the topic, “The Boundaries of Privacy in American Society.”

Samuel Alito Relationships And More

Samuel Alito Family

Samuel Alito was born to Samuel A. Alito Sr. and Rose Fradusco Alito. His father, Samuel, was an Italian immigrant from Calabria who became a high school teacher and later served as director of the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services. His mother, Rose, worked as a schoolteacher and principal. She has a sister named Rosemary Alito, who is a lawyer. 

Samuel Alito Career Timeline 

Military Service 

Samuel Alito was drafted as a commissioned second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, deployed to the U.S. Army Reserve. He started his active duty after graduating from Yale and continued until December 1975, after which he was mostly associated with the inactive Reserves. Alito was honorably discharged as a captain in 1980. 

Legal Career 

In 1975, he became an editor of the ‘Yale Law Journal.’ In 1976 and 1977, he served as a law clerk to appellate judge Leonard I. Garth in Newark. From 1981 to 1985, while working as an assistant to Solicitor General Rex E. Lee, Alito represented the federal government in approximately 12 cases before the Supreme Court.

In April 1990, he was appointed as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. On October 31, 2005, President George W. Bush nominated him to the Supreme Court to succeed Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Following Senate confirmation, he assumed office on January 31, 2006.

Samuel Alito has served on the Supreme Court for nearly two decades. He has influenced American law by emphasizing ‘textualism’ (a focus on the literal meaning of the law), federalism, and the protection of individual liberties—as they were understood at the time of the Constitution’s framing.

Alito has authored majority opinions in several significant cases, including: McDonald v. Chicago (2010), concerning the right to bear arms; Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014), regarding insurance coverage; Janus v. AFSCME (2018), concerning public-sector union security agreements; and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), which dealt with abortion.

Samuel Alito Height And Weight

Samuel Alito Net Worth

Some Interesting Facts About Samuel Alito

• Samuel Alito was born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey, to Samuel Alito Sr. and Rose Fradusco. 
• His father was a Calabrian immigrant from Saline Joniche, and his mother was an Italian-American. 
• He attended Steiner High School, where he graduated in1968 as the class valedictorian. 
• In 1972, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. 
• Alito chaired a student conference in 1971 called “The Boundaries of Privacy in American Society” while attending Princeton University. 
• While a sophomore at Princeton, he received a low lottery number of 32 in the Selective Service drawing. 
• Alito was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve in 1972. 
• He attended Yale Law School, where he served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal, and received his Juris Doctor degree in 1975. 
• He clerked for Third Circuit appeals judge Leonard I. Garth, from 1976 to 1977. 
• He interviewed with Supreme Court Justice Byron White for a clerkship but was not hired. 
• Samuel Alito was Assistant United States Attorney, District of New Jersey, from 1977 to 1981.
• From 1981 to 1985, Alito was assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General Rex E. Lee. 
• Samuel Alito was the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, from 1987 to 1990. 
• He is a member of the Federalist Society, a group of conservative and libertarian lawyers and legal students. 
• In 1985, Samuel Alito married Martha-Ann Bomgardner, a law librarian who met him during his trip to the library as a law clerk. 
• Since Stephen Breyer’s retirement in 2022, Alito has been the only military veteran on the court. 
• Samuel Alito is a baseball fan and a longtime fan of the Philadelphia Phillies. 

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