What is Samuel Alito's Net Worth and Salary?
Samuel Alito is a lawyer and jurist who has a net worth of $2 million. Samuel Alito has served as an associate justice of the US Supreme Court since 2006. Before that, he served as the US Attorney for the District of New Jersey and then as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Regarded as one of the most conservative justices on the Supreme Court, Alito has written majority opinions in such cases as Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Murphy v. NCAA, and, most infamously, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which controversially overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 2022.
Salary
As an associate Justice of the Supreme Court, American taxpayers pay Samuel Alito a base annual salary of $265,000. His financial disclosures show that he also tends to receive an additional $20-30,000 per year working as a guest professor at a number of universities.
Early Life and Education
Samuel Alito was born on April Fool's Day, 1950 in Trenton, New Jersey to Italian immigrant father Samuel Sr. and Italian-American mother Rose. Both of his parents were schoolteachers. Raised in suburban Hamilton Township, Alito went to Steinert High School, from which he graduated as class valedictorian in 1968. He went on to attend Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude in 1972 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. After that, Alito attended Yale Law School, from which he graduated with his JD in 1975. He subsequently served in the US Army from September to December of 1975. Alito served the remainder of his time in the Army in the Reserve, ultimately receiving an honorable discharge in 1980.
Career Beginnings
Alito got his professional start in the legal world as a clerk for Third Circuit appeals judge Leonard I. Garth in 1976 and 1977. Following that, from 1977 to 1981, he served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, a role in which he prosecuted cases involving organized crime and drug trafficking. From 1981 to 1985, Alito served as an assistant to US Solicitor General Rex E. Lee, and from 1985 to 1987 served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General under Charles J. Cooper in the Office of Legal Counsel.
United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey
Alito served as the US Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1987 to 1990. During that time, he oversaw a number of significant cases, including the two-year trial of 20 defendants accused of being affiliated with mob boss Anthony Accetturo. All 20 were ultimately acquitted. Alito also personally handled the trial of an assailant who shot an FBI agent in the line of duty, and prosecuted a member of the Japanese Red Army for planning a bombing in Manhattan.
United States Court of Appeals
In early 1990, George H. W. Bush nominated Alito to the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; he was confirmed as a judge in April. Among his notable opinions, he took the majority in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Saxe v. State College Area School District, ACLU v. Schundler, and Williams v. Price. Alito's dissenting opinions included United States v. Rybar, Doe v. Groody, and Glass v. Philadelphia Electric Company.
(Photo by Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)
United States Supreme Court
On Halloween in 2005, George W. Bush announced that he was nominating Alito to fill the US Supreme Court seat vacated by Sandra Day O'Connor. His nomination was met with intense disapproval by many due to his staunchly conservative views, including his anti-abortion stance. However, Alito was eventually confirmed by the Senate at the end of January in 2006 with a 58-42 vote. During his first term, he wrote majority opinions in such cases as Holmes v. South Carolina, Woodford v. Ngo, and Zedner v. United States.
Alito has received some of his heaviest criticism for his opposition to women's rights. Notably, he joined the conservative bloc in arguing that the Court's earlier decisions in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey should be overturned. In early 2022, a leaked first draft of a majority opinion by Alito pertaining to the upcoming decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization circulated among the Court. The opinion would overturn the landmark cases of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, severely restricting access to abortion and making it potentially illegal in some states. In June, the ruling was finally handed down, sparking widespread outrage and protests around the world.
Personal Life
In 1985, Alito married law librarian Martha-Ann. Together, they have two children. The family lived in West Caldwell, New Jersey, and then in Alexandria, Virginia after Alito was nominated to the Supreme Court.
