Samuel Alito

Lawyer / Jurist

Name at birth: Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr.

On 31 October 2005 Samuel A. Alito, Jr. was nominated by President George W. Bush to replace outgoing associate justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the United States Supreme Court. Alito is a native of New Jersey and a graduate of Princeton University (1972) and Yale Law School (1975). After a stint as an assistant U.S. attorney (1977-81), Alito got a job in the Reagan administration's Department of Justice, first in the office of the Solicitor General (1981-85), then in the office of the Attorney General. From 1987 until 1990 he served as the U.S. Attorney in New Jersey. Named by President George H.W. Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Alito has been a judge since April 1990. After a sometimes contentious process, Alito was sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court on 31 January 2006.

Extra credit: He was nominated by George W. Bush four days after nominee Harriet Miers's withdrawal was characterized by the media as appeasement to Bush's political base... Alito's successor at the U.S. Attorney's office was Michael Chertoff, Bush's Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.