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On a special visit to Pepperdine, Justice Alito reflected on his recent appointment to the Supreme Court. Alito visited Pepperdine on Monday as a guest speaker at the Pepperdine School of Law’s Annual Constitution Day Forum. Justice Alito spoke about the importance of the Constitution in his legal career before answering student questions.
In his opening remarks, the justice expressed his eagerness to speak at Pepperdine.
This was not Alito’s first visit to campus. He spoke at Pepperdine when he was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Because “Pepperdine was interested in hearing what might I have to say when I was still a judge … I have feel a special attachment to Pepperdine and to Pepperdine Law School,” Alito said. The justice also has a long friendship with both Caruso Family Chair Professor Doug Kmiec and Dean Ken Starr of the School of Law. Kmiec and Alito worked together for the Justice Department in the Office of Legal Counsel under the Reagan administration. Starr led the committee that nominated Alito to the Circuit Court in 1990.
Monsignor John V. Sheridan, of Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church, said it was an honor to be in the presence of such an eminent legal scholar. Kmiec spoke of his friend and co-worker as not only someone who revered the law, but also as a family man with a passion for the Philadelphia Phillies.
Alito’s reputation among the legal and political profession is so impeccable “that in an unprecedented gesture of support, [Alito’s colleagues] insisted – whether he had been appointed by a Democratic or Republican president – to testify on his behalf,” Kmiec said.
Prior to his nomination to the Supreme Court, Alito served as clerk and a judge for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, assistant U.S. attorney in the appellate division, assistant to the solicitor general, deputy assistant attorney general advisor to President Reagan and U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.
Still, he said, “[It is still an] awe inspiring experience when you join the Supreme Court,” Alito said. “A small part of me … thought that when someone became a justice of the Supreme Court, something special happened to their mind,” Alito said. “I was half expecting to have some sort of Constitutional epiphany.”
Alito also spoke of the significance of Supreme Court traditions, such as allowing new justices to sit briefly in Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall’s chair and to sign the Harlan Bible presented to the court by first justice John M. Harlan at the end of the nineteenth century.
Alito’s answers to student questions revealed his strict constructionist view that interpretation of the Constitution should be limited to a narrow and literal definition and that the Constitution should not be reinterpreted for a modern context.
“The Constitution is a document guaranteed to last,” Alito said.
It was not intended “to change with every generation.” However, Alito took a more liberal stance on the current debate over whether Supreme Courts should allow oral arguments before the Court to be televised.
He explained that although he deferred to the majority opinion of the Court, he believed the idea of televised arguments had value because it is important in a democratic country for the people to be aware of and understand what their government is doing.
Alito also participated in events at the Heroes’ Garden in memory of Sept. 11th.
Submitted 09-14-2006
MALIBU, CA
