Samuel Alito

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Samuel Alito (2007)

Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. (* 1. April 1950 in Trenton , New Jersey ) is an American lawyer and since January 31, 2006 Judge at the Supreme Court of the United States ( Supreme Court ). Alito was nominated by US President George W. Bush to replace the withdrawn candidate Harriet Miers to succeed Judge Sandra Day O'Connor .

Career and personal information

Born in New Jersey to Italian immigrants, Alito studied at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Yale University's Yale Law School . Alito is Catholic and has a son and a daughter with his wife Martha-Ann.

From 1976 to 1977 Alito served as a clerk for federal appeals judge Leonard I. Garth , then for four years as assistant federal attorney for the district of New Jersey. In 1981 he became assistant to the Solicitor General Rex E. Lee ; from 1985 he was deputy assistant to the Attorney General Edwin Meese .

In 1987 he succeeded Thomas W. Greelish as a federal attorney for the district of New Jersey. As a prosecutor, he focused his investigations on organized crime as well as corruption, drug and white-collar crime. He lost a spectacular mafia murder trial against 20 members of the Genovese clan and won the conviction of the terrorist Yu Kikumura who wanted to blow up a US Navy recruiting station . Besides serving Alito in the reserve of the US Army , which he in the rank of captain left.

1990 appointed him President George Bush to the federal judge at the Federal Court of Appeals for the 3rd District Court in Newark . At this liberal court, Alito was comparatively often in the minority with his opinion. The Senate unanimously confirmed him in office for both the post of public prosecutor and judge .

Alito is considered a staunch conservative. When he applied for his position in the Ministry of Justice in 1985 , he stated that he “strongly supported the restriction of state power, federalism , free enterprise, the primacy of elected state authorities, the need for strong and effective law enforcement and the legitimacy of the Protection of Traditional Values ​​by the State “and that he was particularly proud to have argued on behalf of the government in court that the Constitution did not protect the right to abortion and that preferential treatment for minorities was unconstitutional.

Nomination for judge in the US Supreme Court

Samuel Alito on his nomination by President George W. Bush .

On October 31, 2005, President George W. Bush nominated Alito to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor in the Supreme Court . He was responding to the fact that the first nominee, Bush's personal legal advisor Harriet Miers, had to withdraw her candidacy after severe criticism, especially from the right-wing camp.

Republican opinion leaders, both in parliament and in the press, stood behind Alito and emphasized that his previous decisions would show that he was solely committed to the law and that he did not abuse the judiciary to overturn democratically established laws in the interests of his own political opinions as judges nominated by Democrats often would. However, some regretted that Bush had not nominated a more radical conservative like Judges J. Michael Luttig , Edith Jones or Janice Rogers Brown .

Opposition Democrats' opinion leaders were initially reluctant, but left-wing liberal interest groups quickly announced their opposition to Alito. They fear that with the replacement of the centrist O'Connor, who often cast the decisive vote at the Supreme Court , by the right-wing Alito, liberal achievements such as the right to abortion would be in danger.

In the debates over Alito's nomination to the Senate Judiciary Committee , the Democratic senators tried to prevent his confirmation. Among other things, they argued that Alito had profiled himself as a right-wing conservative and anti-abortion opponent in an application for a position in the Reagan administration, that he belonged to a reactionary-conservative student group, that he was in proceedings against a company in which he invests had not gone out on strike fast enough and that he was an advocate of excessive executive power . Thanks to the unanimous support of the Republicans and Alito's fellow lawyers from all political camps, his proven legal competence and his ten-year impeccable career as an appellate judge, his nomination was never in serious danger in the judgment of most observers.

Samuel Alito (r.) With Foreign Secretary Mike Pompeo and his wife (2018)

The Judiciary Committee then recommended the Senate plenary to confirm Alito with ten Republican votes against eight Democratic votes. On January 30, 2006, the Senate voted 75:25 to close the Alito's nomination debate, fending off a filibuster led by Democrats John Kerry and Edward Kennedy . On January 31, 2006, the Senate confirmed Alito with 58:42 votes. All but one Republican senators ( Lincoln Chafee ) voted for, all but four Democratic senators ( Robert Byrd , Kent Conrad , Tim Johnson , Ben Nelson ) against him.

Jurisprudence

As a federal appeals judge

Some US lawyers have nicknamed Alito "Scalito" because of the alleged similarity of his beliefs to those of Antonin Scalia . Other of his fellow lawyers emphasize that, unlike Scalia, Alito is characterized by restraint and collegiality, that he is not an originalist and that he has never used his judicial office in the service of a political agenda.

Analysis of his jurisdiction as a federal appeals judge by the Washington Post came to the following conclusions:

  • In general, Alito's profile as a judge is similar to that of other federal judges appointed by Republican presidents. The number of cases he was in the minority or the Supreme Court overturned his decision on appeal is average.
  • Alito tends to attach great importance to the views of law enforcement agencies, particularly in criminal or immigration proceedings, but less so in matters of economic regulation. Accordingly, his judgments are often to the disadvantage of the accused, asylum seekers or immigrants.
  • On the question of the separation of church and state, Alito consistently takes the view that a greater role for religion in public life is compatible with the First Amendment .

Alito's major decisions as a federal appeals judge include:

Religious freedom

  • The majority opinion in ACLU v. Schundler , 168 F.3d 92 (3d Cir. 1999): A holiday exhibition in a town hall with a crib, menorah , secular holiday symbols and a banner that advertises pluralism ( diversity ) is not unconstitutional.

freedom of speech

  • The majority opinion in Saxe v. State College Area School District , 240 F.3d 200 (3d Cir. 2001): A public school "anti-harassment rule" that prohibits expressions of opinion that does not affect the operation of the school is in violation of the First Amendment .

abortion

  • A minority opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey , 947 F.2d 682 (3d Cir. 1991): A Pennsylvania Law that Wives and the like. a. obliged to notify their husbands prior to an abortion is , in Alito's opinion, not against the constitution. The Supreme Court later narrowly upheld the unconstitutionality of this law by 5 to 4 votes.

Other areas of law

  • The majority opinion in Fatin v. INS , 12 F.3d 1233 (3d Cir. 1993): An Iranian woman can apply for asylum in the USA if she can prove that she suffers from the repressive social norms in Iran (such as the compulsory veil ), or because she is because of her feminist convictions would be pursued.
  • The majority opinion in Shore Regional High School Board of Education v. PS , 381 F.3d 194 (3d Cir. 2004): A public school violates federal law if it does not protect a student from bullying by classmates because of his unsporting behavior and his alleged homosexuality .
  • The majority opinion in Williams v. Price , 343 F.3d 223 (3d Cir. 2003): A black prisoner is to be released ( writ of habeas corpus ) because the state courts failed to take into account that one of the jury members made racist statements when the prisoner was sentenced.
  • A minority opinion in Homar v. Gilbert , 89 F.3d 1009 (3d Cir. 1996): A state university that releases a campus guard unpaid without a hearing after being charged with drug offenses does not, in Alito's opinion, violate his procedural rights. The Supreme Court subsequently followed Alito's opinion.

As a Supreme Court judge

freedom of speech

  • Dissenting opinion in Morse v. Frederick , 551 US 393 (2007): Alito agrees with the majority opinion that schools can prohibit students from promoting illegal drugs in or near a school event, but emphasizes that political language, including drug-related language, is allowed must stay.
  • Majority opinion in Davis v. Federal Election Commission , 554 US 724 (2008): Parts of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act that restrict political candidates from funding their own campaigns are unconstitutional.
  • Opinion in Snyder v. Phelbs , 562 US 443 (2011): According to Alito, the disruption of the burial of a Catholic soldier by the Westboro Baptist Church is not covered by the 1st amendment because it is completely intolerable in a civilized society. The church could therefore be held liable in the case.
  • Opinion in United States v. Alvarez , 567 US 709 (2012): The Stolen Valor Act , which made it a criminal offense to portray oneself as a recipient of an honor from the US military, is constitutional, according to Alito, as such claims cause actual damage and cannot be justified by a legitimate interest.

Employment Law

  • Majority opinion in Gomez-Perez v. Potter , 553 US 474 (2008): Employees who file a complaint under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and are therefore harassed by the employer or employees can sue.
  • Majority opinion in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby , 573 US 682 (2014): A regulation by the Department of Health , which requires employers to pay women workers certain contraceptives, violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in private religious companies .
  • Majority opinion in Janus v. AFSCME , 585 US ___ (2018): Under the 1st Amendment, workers cannot be forced to pay dues to a union if they are not a member of the union but still benefit from the collective agreements they have negotiated.
  • Opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County , 590 US ___ (2020): According to Alito, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 allows discrimination against workers on the basis of their sexual orientation and identity, since these categories were not included by Congress or were still unknown at the time . The majority opinion is abuse of power by the court.

death penalty

  • Majority opinion in Glossip v. Gross , 576 US ___ (2015): An execution by midazolam is not a cruel and unusual punishment under the 8th Amendment . Those sentenced to death have the burden of proof when suing a type of execution and must show that a known and available alternative exists.

Gun rights

  • Majority opinion in McDonald v. Chicago , 561 US 742 (2010): The right to gun ownership from the 2nd Amendment is not only binding on the federal level, but also on the individual states.

Health law

Civil status law

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/alito/8105.pdf#page=15
  2. ^ TR Goldman: Judicial Experience, Conservative Credentials Seen as Factors in Alito Nomination. Legal Times, Nov. 1, 2005, law.com
  3. ↑ C. Burset: Alito '72 nominated for Supreme Court seat. October 28, 2005, dailyprincetonian.com ( Memento from July 28, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  4. ^ A. Goldstein, S. Cohen: Alito, In and Out of the Mainstream. January 1, 2006, washingtonpost.com

Web links

Commons : Samuel Alito  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Samuel Alito  - Quotes
Wikisource: Samuel Alito  - Sources and full texts (English)

To person

To the case law

Weblogs

  • SCOTUS Blog - News about the Supreme Court and nomination.

The websites are in English unless otherwise stated.

personal data
SURNAME Alito, Samuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alito, Samuel Anthony junior (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lawyer, United States Supreme Court Justice
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Trenton , New Jersey