Justice Alito on Media Harassment, Originalism, and Why Rules Matter

I sat down Tuesday with Justice Samuel Alito in his chambers at the Supreme Court to talk about baseball, his judicial philosophy, his Catholic faith, and the various current crises for the Court and the American political system. Our discussion revolved around his new book, So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country, a collection of his speeches that was released that day. I’ll have a review of the book up soon.

The 76-year-old Alito is taller than you’d expect in person and hardly looks like a man who is thinking about whether his age should lead him to retire, as he told Jan Crawford of CBS. Then again, while he was characteristically blunt and candid in that interview, he didn’t really say anything of more substance on the topic of retirement than the usual D.C. rituals for judges and politicians who won’t tell you anything of significance about their future plans until they are ready to say what they’ve decided. He’s day-to-day, but aren’t we all?

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

Featured Tags

I sat down Tuesday with Justice Samuel Alito in his chambers at the Supreme Court to talk about baseball, his judicial philosophy, his Catholic faith, and the various current crises for the Court and the American political system. Our discussion revolved around his new book, So Ordered: An Originalist’s View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country, a collection of his speeches that was released that day. I’ll have a review of the book up soon.

The 76-year-old Alito is taller than you’d expect in person and hardly looks like a man who is thinking about whether his age should lead him to retire, as he told Jan Crawford of CBS. Then again, while he was characteristically blunt and candid in that interview, he didn’t really say anything of more substance on the topic of retirement than the usual D.C. rituals for judges and politicians who won’t tell you anything of significance about their future plans until they are ready to say what they’ve decided. He’s day-to-day, but aren’t we all?