{"id":2559314,"date":"2026-01-31T06:19:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/10-alito-quotes-to-mark-his-20-years-on-the-supreme-court\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T06:20:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T11:20:41","slug":"10-alito-quotes-to-mark-his-20-years-on-the-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/10-alito-quotes-to-mark-his-20-years-on-the-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Alito Quotes To Mark His 20 Years On The Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F10-alito-quotes-to-mark-his-20-years-on-the-supreme-court%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2559314&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito marked his 20th anniversary on the Court, and The Federalist collected notable quotes and moments illustrating his jurisprudence and public remarks. A committed originalist, Alito wrote the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization (2022), which overturned Roe v.Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. He dissented in Murthy v. Missouri (2024), defending free speech and warning against government collusion with Big Tech to suppress expression. In Mahmoud v. Taylor, he authored the Court\u2019s decision recognizing parents\u2019 rights to opt children out of certain school materials on religious grounds. Alito has emphasized a \u201ccolorblind\u201d Constitution, defended religious liberty, and argued that constitutional rights should not be suspended during emergencies. The article also highlights his sharp questioning in oral arguments (including the \u201cWhat is a woman?\u201d exchange in sports cases), a lighter anecdote showing his humor, and his comments on hard work rooted in his family background. The piece was written by Shawn Fleetwood for The Federalist.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito just hit a major milestone in his judicial career. On Saturday, the Bush appointee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/publicinfo\/press\/pressreleases\/pr_01-31-06\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">marked<\/a> his 20th anniversary as a justice on the highest court in the land. <\/p>\n<p>Since joining SCOTUS, Alito has been a staunch and reliable originalist, authoring some of the court&rsquo;s most significant decisions of the 21st century. This includes the court&rsquo;s 2022 <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2021\/19-1392\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dobbs v. Jackson Women&rsquo;s Health Organization<\/a><\/em>  ruling, which overturned the horrifically decided <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em> (1973) and the imaginary &ldquo;constitutional right&rdquo; to abortion.<\/p>\n<p>Producing strong, consistent originalist interpretation and wisdom at the Supreme Court for two decades is no small feat. So, it only seemed fitting that The Federalist compile 10 of the justice&rsquo;s best quotes from over the years to celebrate the occasion. <\/p>\n<h2>Doing What&rsquo;s Right<\/h2>\n<p>During an interview with the Hoover Institution&rsquo;s Peter Robinson last year, Alito <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/06\/19\/here-are-8-killer-quotes-from-justice-alitos-latest-sit-down-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">affirmed<\/a> that it&rsquo;s the duty of all judges to ignore the politics of the day and instead focus on properly adhering to the Constitution &mdash; even if doing so may yield an unpopular result. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We are not supposed to do what is popular, we&rsquo;re supposed to do what is right. We&rsquo;re supposed to interpret the Constitution and figure out what it means and then apply the Constitution,&rdquo; Alito said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re basically a democratic country, but the framers want to put some restraint on things that people might do during a particular area because they&rsquo;re caught up in the emotions that are triggered by the events of the day. So, we have to stand firm on this, and I think we have done a pretty good job on it, but we have to keep it up because challenges will &hellip; continue to come.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Defending Free Speech<\/h2>\n<p>When the Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/26\/scotus-green-lights-feds-big-tech-censorship-scheme-ahead-of-2024-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dismissed<\/a> a legal challenge to the Biden administration&rsquo;s collusion with Big Tech to censor Americans in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2023\/23-411\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Murthy v. Missouri<\/a><\/em>  (2024), it was Alito who offered a full-throated defense of these challengers&rsquo; free speech rights.<\/p>\n<p>Writing for the dissent, the Bush appointee chastised the majority for failing to recognize the &ldquo;blatantly unconstitutional&rdquo; nature of the government&rsquo;s Big Tech censorship scheme. He further warned about &ldquo;the message&rdquo; the court&rsquo;s ruling would send to <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >future wannabe government censors<\/a> and underscored the importance of free speech in American society.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Freedom of speech serves many valuable purposes, but its most important role is protection of speech that is essential to democratic self-government &hellip; and speech that advances humanity&rsquo;s store of knowledge, thought, and expression in fields such as science, medicine, history, the social sciences, philosophy, and the arts,&rdquo; Alito <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/23pdf\/23-411_3dq3.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a>. &ldquo;[W]e are obligated to tackle the free speech issue that the case presents. The Court, however, shirks that duty and thus permits the successful campaign of coercion in this case to stand as an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear, and think. That is regrettable.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Standing Up for Parental Rights<\/h2>\n<p>Alito was at the forefront of the Supreme Court&rsquo;s recognition that parents have a fundamental interest in the religious upbringing of their children. Last year, the Bush appointee authored the majority decision in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2024\/24-297\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mahmoud v. Taylor<\/a><\/em>, in which the court <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/06\/27\/supreme-court-allows-parents-to-opt-children-out-of-lgbt-propaganda-in-school\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">held<\/a> that parents can opt their children out of LGBT propaganda pushed in their schools. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It must be emphasized that what the parents seek here is not the right to micromanage the public school curriculum, but rather to have their children opt out of a particular educational requirement that burdens their well-established right &lsquo;to direct &ldquo;the religious upbringing&rdquo; of their children,&#8217;&rdquo; Alito <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/24pdf\/24-297_4f14.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a>. &ldquo;The Board&rsquo;s introduction of the &lsquo;LGBTQ+-inclusive&rsquo; storybooks, along with its decision to withhold opt outs, places an unconstitutional burden on the parents&rsquo; rights to the free exercise of their religion.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong>[RELATED:[RELATED:<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/10\/14\/alito-scolds-lower-courts-for-dodging-cases-on-schools-transing-kids-behind-parents-backs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Alito Scolds Lower Courts For Dodging Cases On Schools &lsquo;Transing&rsquo; Kids Behind Parents&rsquo; Backs<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Nuking <em>Roe<\/em> and <em>Casey<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>The current Supreme Court delivered what is arguably one of the biggest wins for the Constitution in 2022 when it <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/06\/24\/justice-at-last-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">overturned<\/a> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1971\/70-18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Roe v. Wade<\/a><\/em>  (and its successor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/1991\/91-744\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Planned Parenthood<\/em> <em>of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey<\/em><\/a>) and the non-existent &ldquo;constitutional right&rdquo; to abortion. And naturally, Alito was at the forefront of making it happen.<\/p>\n<p>Writing for the majority, the Bush appointee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/21pdf\/19-1392_6j37.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">noted<\/a> that nowhere does the Constitution &ldquo;reference&rdquo; abortion, let alone a &ldquo;right&rdquo; to it. He additionally highlighted the egregious jurisprudence displayed by the Supreme Court that decided <em>Roe<\/em> and <em>Casey<\/em> and the harmful fallout resulting from such decisions.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of <em>Roe<\/em> and <em>Casey<\/em> now chiefly rely&mdash;the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,&rdquo; Alito wrote. &ldquo;It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people&rsquo;s elected representatives. &hellip; That is what the Constitution and the rule of law demand.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>A &lsquo;Colorblind&rsquo; Constitution<\/h2>\n<p>While discussing past affirmative action cases during his <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/06\/19\/here-are-8-killer-quotes-from-justice-alitos-latest-sit-down-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interview<\/a> with Robinson, Alito reaffirmed that the Constitution is a &ldquo;colorblind&rdquo; document that treats every American equally. He noted that ignoring this reality and giving certain races preferential treatment under the law does nothing more than undermine American cohesion.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I think that our Constitution is colorblind &hellip; How are we gonna hold together if we don&rsquo;t regard each other simply as fellow human beings, as fellow Americans, and judge people based on their individual characteristics?&rdquo; Alito said.<\/p>\n<h2>Religious Liberty<\/h2>\n<p>Alito delivered the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uci4uni608E&amp;t=8s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">keynote address<\/a> at Notre Dame Law School&rsquo;s 2022 Religious Liberty Summit, in which he spoke about the importance of religious liberty. While highlighting these freedoms&rsquo; contributions to civil society, the justice warned about their fragility and the need to defend them against persecution.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[W]e can&rsquo;t lightly assume that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/justice-alito-u-s-seeing-growing-hostility-to-religious-freedom\/\" title=\"... ...: U.S. Seeing Growing Hostility To Religious Freedom\">religious liberty enjoyed today<\/a> in the United States, in Europe, and in many other places will always endure. Religious liberty is fragile, and religious intolerance and persecution have been recurring features of human history,&rdquo; Alito <a href=\"https:\/\/law.nd.edu\/news-events\/news\/2022-religious-liberty-summit-rome-justice-samuel-alito-keynote\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Alito the Comedian<\/h2>\n<p>While Alito is certainly known for his incredible intellect, he&rsquo;s also quite a funny guy. The Bush appointee displayed his penchant for humor during a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=1PKZvXD-3PA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2014 Yale Law School event<\/a> alongside fellow Yale alumni and Justices Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor.<\/p>\n<p>When asked by the event moderator what good book he&rsquo;s read recently, Alito slowly and calmly claimed that there are two books he keeps on his nightstand. What the moderator, his fellow justices, and the audience didn&rsquo;t expect, however, was Alito&rsquo;s joking answer that these two books were Thomas&rsquo; and Sotomayor&rsquo;s autobiographies.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Well, I have two books that are inspirational, and I keep them on the table by my bed. I try to read them a little bit every night. It&rsquo;s <em>My Grandfather&rsquo;s Son<\/em> and <em>My Beloved World<\/em>,&rdquo; Alito said, prompting roaring laughter from his fellow justices and the audience. <\/p>\n<h2>Constitutional Rights Are Non-Negotiable <\/h2>\n<p>While delivering an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VMnukCVIZWQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">address<\/a> at The Federalist Society&rsquo;s virtual 2020 National Lawyers Convention, Alito underscored that Americans&rsquo; constitutional freedoms are not up for negotiation. He further noted that just because there&rsquo;s a so-called public &ldquo;emergency,&rdquo; that doesn&rsquo;t give the government license to suspend these rights. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Whatever one may think about the Covid restrictions, we surely don&rsquo;t want them to become a recurring feature after the pandemic has passed,&rdquo; Alito <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jlpp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2022\/02\/ALITO_VOL45_ISS1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>. &ldquo;All sorts of things can be called an emergency or disaster of major proportions. Simply slapping on that label cannot provide the ground for abrogating our most fundamental rights. And whenever fundamental rights are restricted, the Supreme Court and other courts cannot close their eyes.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>&lsquo;What is a Woman?&rsquo;<\/h2>\n<p>The written page isn&rsquo;t the only place where Alito displays his sharp intellect. The justice has also gained a reputation for his skilled questioning during oral arguments before the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>A good example of this came during the high court&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/01\/14\/scotus-signals-willingness-to-uphold-state-laws-protecting-womens-sports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent hearings<\/a> for cases weighing the legality of state laws preventing trans-identifying men from competing in women&rsquo;s sports. Alito <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/01\/13\/justice-alitos-what-is-a-woman-question-leaves-left-wing-attorney-flailing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">asked<\/a> the attorney of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/alitos-what-is-a-woman-question-leaves-leftist-attorney-flailing\/\" title=\"...&#039;s &#039;What Is A Woman?&#039; Question Leaves Leftist Attorney Flailing\">trans-identifying male challenging<\/a> one of the laws at issue a simple question: to define what it means &ldquo;to be a boy or a girl or a man or a woman.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The left-wing lawyer declined to provide a definitive answer, leading Alito to ponder how courts are supposed to &ldquo;determine whether there&rsquo;s discrimination on the basis of sex without knowing what sex means for equal protection purposes.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Hard Work Wins<\/h2>\n<p>During a 2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2014\/11\/09\/interview-justice-samuel-alito-immigration-mentors-advice-successful-life\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interview<\/a>, Alito was asked about the subject of &ldquo;hard work,&rdquo; and whether, as a child, he believed anything could be possible if he adhered to such a philosophy. The son of an Italian immigrant, Alito cited his parents&rsquo; influence on his life and their unshakeable belief that hard work will, in fact, take you places in life if you commit to it. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Although my parents grew up in poor families where little English was spoken, they both went to college and became teachers. They believed that anything was possible with hard work, and they particularly stressed the importance of education. They instilled that same belief in my sister and me,&rdquo; Alito said. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics and RealClearHealth. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alito marks 20 years as a leading originalist justice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":2559315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Samuel-Alito-1.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[72404,72403,34633,32275,72405],"class_list":["post-2559314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-20th-anniversary","tag-judicial-quotes","tag-samuel-alito","tag-supreme-court","tag-u-s-judiciary"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Samuel-Alito-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2559314"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2559318,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2559314\/revisions\/2559318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2559315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2559314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2559314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2559314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}