Latest Samuel Alito Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• When I was sworn in as a judge of the court of appeals, I took an oath. I put my hand on the Bible and I swore that I would administer justice without respect to persons, that I would do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I would carry out my duties under the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

  Samuel Alito

  Hands, Law, Justice

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• Good judges are always open to the possibility of changing their minds based on the next brief that they read, or the next argument that's made by an attorney who's appearing before them, or a comment that is made by a colleague during the conference on the case when the judges privately discuss the case.

  Samuel Alito

  Judging, Mind, Next

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• It's been a great honor for me to spend my career in public service.

  Samuel Alito

  Careers, Honor, Public Service

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• Good judges develop certain habits of mind. One of those habits of mind is the habit of delaying reaching conclusions until everything has been considered.

  Samuel Alito

  Judging, Mind, Habit

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• When I became a judge, I stopped being a practicing attorney. And that was a big change in role.The role of a practicing attorney is to achieve a desirable result for the client in the particular case at hand. But a judge can't think that way. A judge can't have any agenda, a judge can't have any preferred outcome in any particular case and a judge certainly doesn't have a client.

  Samuel Alito

  Thinking, Hands, Judging

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• I have been shaped by the experiences of the people who are closest to me, by the things I've learned from [my wife] Martha, by my hopes and my concerns for my children, Philip and Laura, by the experiences of members of my family, who are getting older, by my sister's experiences as a trial lawyer in a profession that has traditionally been dominated by men.

  Samuel Alito

  Children, Men, People

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• I've learned a lot during my years on the 3rd Circuit, particularly, I think, about the way in which a judge should go about the work of judging. I've learned by doing, by sitting on all of these cases. And I think I've also learned from the examples of some really remarkable colleagues.

  Samuel Alito

  Thinking, Years, Judging

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• I can still remember the day, as an assistant U.S. attorney, when I stood up in court for the first time and I proudly said, "My name is Samuel Alito and I represent the United States in this court." It was a great honor for me to have the United States as my client during all of those years.

  Samuel Alito

  Years, Names, Honor

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• I had the good fortune to begin my legal career as a law clerk for a judge who really epitomized open-mindedness and fairness. He read the record in detail in every single case that came before me; he insisted on scrupulously following precedents.

  Samuel Alito

  Law, Careers, Judging

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• It was a time of turmoil at colleges and universities. And I saw some very smart people and very privileged people behaving irresponsibly. And I couldn't help making a contrast between some of the worst of what I saw on the campus and the good sense and the decency of the people back in my own community.

  Samuel Alito

  Smart, College, People

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• A generation earlier, I think that somebody from my background probably would not have felt fully comfortable at a college like Princeton. But, by the time I graduated from high school, things had changed.

  Samuel Alito

  School, College, Thinking

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• This was a time of great intellectual excitement for me. Both college and law school opened up new worlds of ideas.

  Samuel Alito

  School, College, Law

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• My mother worked for more than a decade before marrying. She went to New York City to get a master's degree. And she continued to work as a teacher and a principal until she was forced to retire.Both she and my father instilled in my sister and me a deep love of learning.

  Samuel Alito

  Mother, Teacher, New York

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• I attended the public schools.And I have happy memories and strong memories of those days and good memories of the good sense and the decency of my friends and my neighbors.

  Samuel Alito

  Strong, Memories, School

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• My mother is a first generation American. Her father worked in the Roebling Steel Mill in Trenton, New Jersey.And yet my mother became the first person in her family to get a college degree.

  Samuel Alito

  Mother, Father, College

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• My father was brought to this country as an infant. He lost his mother as a teenager. He grew up in poverty.Although he graduated at the top of his high school class, he had no money for college. And he was set to work in a factory but, at the last minute, a kind person in the Trenton area arranged for him to receive a $50 scholarship and that was enough in those days for him to pay the tuition at a local college and buy one used suit. And that made the difference between his working in a factory and going to college.

  Samuel Alito

  Mother, Country, Teenager

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been a pioneer, and her dedicated service on the Supreme Court will never be forgotten. And the people of the country certainly owe her a great debt for the service that she has provided.

  Samuel Alito

  Country, People, Justice

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• I know from my own experience as a parent that parents probably teach most powerfully not through their words but through their deeds. And my parents taught me through the stories of their lives. And I don't take any credit for the things that they did or the things that they experienced, but they made a great impression on me.

  Samuel Alito

  Parent, Stories, Credit

  Opening Statement to Senate Judiciary Committee, delivered 9 January 2006

• I am deeply honored to have been nominated for a position on the Supreme Court. And I an humbled to have been nominated for the seat that is now held by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

  Samuel Alito

  Justice, Sandra Day O Connor, Court

  U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito's Nomination to the Supreme Court, www.washingtonpost.com. January 9, 2006.

• If you want know what sort of a justice I would make, then look at what sort of a judge I have been.

  Samuel Alito

  Justice, Judging, Looks

  U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito's Nomination to the Supreme Court, www.washingtonpost.com. January 09, 2006.

• In an era where the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge [Samuel] Alito's support for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling.

  Samuel Alito

  Powerful, White, Judging

• Under the president's spying program, there are no checks and balances. There is no outside review of the legality of this brazen infringement on the civil rights and liberties of the American people. Undeterred by the public outcry, the president [George Bush] vows to continue spying on American citizens.

  Samuel Alito

  Rights, People, Balance

• The most important quality for a judge is open- mindedness to the arguments.

  Samuel Alito

  Judging, Important, Quality

  U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Judge Samuel Alito's Nomination to the Supreme Court, www.washingtonpost.com. January 9, 2006.

• When I had my confirmation hearing for the Court of Appeals, [my son] Philip was 3 years old. And when I was called up to the chair he took it upon himself to run up and sit next to me in case any hard questions came up.

  Samuel Alito

  Running, Son, Years

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

• I think that what my parents taught me about hard work, optimism and education still holds true.

  Samuel Alito

  Hard Work, Thinking, Optimism

  "An Interview With Justice Samuel Alito on Immigration, His Mentors and Advice for a Successful Life". Interview with Madaline Donnelly, dailysignal.com. November 09, 2014.