HAMILTON – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was the unofficial homecoming king Friday evening as he stepped foot inside his old high school for a special ceremony on a special night.
“I am very much moved by this ceremony,” Alito said to an audience of dignitaries, school officials and former classmates in the newly renovated Steinert High School library, which now honors him for the ages. “I can’t think of a place where I would rather have my name associated with … than Steinert High School, which played a big role in my development.”
The Trenton-born Alito graduated from Steinert as class valedictorian in 1968. The school’s library has been renamed and dedicated in his honor Friday evening in an event attended by elected officials and Hamilton Township School District officials.
“An awful lot has changed since 1968,” Alito said. “1968 was a tumultuous year.”
The justice remembered 1968 as the year when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated and said “we are in a tumultuous time now in our society.”
But as tumultuous as 1968 was, “We got through it,” Alito said, “and I trust we will get through our current period.”
In a midterm election year with national focus on President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, The Trentonian asked Alito whether he is following the politically explosive confirmation hearings.
“I follow it from afar,” he said.
Alito has been serving on the nation’s highest court since Jan. 31, 2006, establishing himself as a principled scholar of conservative jurisprudence.
The library dedication in Alito’s honor coincided with the 50th anniversary of the opening of Steinert High School and the 50th reunion of Steinert’s first graduating class.
“I can’t believe it’s been 50 years since I’ve been a student here,” Alito said at Friday’s library dedication. “I don’t know where that time went.”
In a unanimous vote, the Hamilton Township Board of Education in June 2016 granted official permission to dedicate and rename the Steinert High School library in honor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
Although Alito is arguably the most high-profile alumnus of Steinert, the high school has not previously dedicated anything in Alito’s honor prior to the library dedication.
“There is nothing on school grounds dedicated to this prestigious man and the student body feels strongly that this dedication is long overdue and well-deserved,” Steinert students said in a March 2016 proposal outlining their goal to commemorate Alito with a library restoration and dedication.
The Hamilton Township municipal government honored Alito in September 2006 by renaming Municipal Drive as Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Way, but the autonomous school district for years neglected to take similar action at Steinert.
Seeking to make a difference, the students from Steinert’s Peer Leadership program and Government and Law Related Experiences or GALRE class organized a dedication campaign. They drafted a proposal touting Alito as “an esteemed member of the U.S. government” and stating, “It is a shame that such an esteemed individual graduated from our school, and we have nothing to commemorate this.”
The students committed themselves toward renovating and dedicating Steinert’s library in honor of Alito, proposing they would make donations and hold fundraisers to update the carpet, shelves, and overall appearance and decor of the library.
The student-led proposal caught the attention of Hamilton Township School District officials at the highest levels and culminated with the Board of Education passing a measure on June 22, 2016, giving the students permission to proceed with the dedication.
“It’s been a long journey, but it’s really been a grassroots effort from the kids,” Steinert GALRE teacher Tracy Quinn said. Her students every year go on a trip to Washington, D.C., where Alito always greets them and answers their questions, she said.
Quinn said she is “deeply proud that Justice Alito once walked the halls of Steinert.”
The Alito-dedicated library features a portrait of the justice painted by 2018 Steinert graduate Keon Cooper, with the framing of the portrait being built by current student Reece Rodriguez. The newly refashioned library features Steinert Class of 1968 photos of Alito, new carpeting, new furniture and a fresh coat of painting on the walls.
One of the justice’s old classmates, Bob Harris, said he and Alito have different ideological philosophies on how the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted. “I don’t agree with Sam on anything other than the Phillies and Eagles,” he said. “But you have to admire Sam. Everybody admired Sam.”
Another 1968 Steinert classmate, Victor McDonald, talked about how Alito served as Steinert’s Student Council president, editor of the Hy-Liter student newspaper, a debate team member and student-athlete in track and field. He described Alito as being “extremely intelligent” with “extreme modesty.”
Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of Hamilton complimented Alito as a “brilliant member of the high court,” saying the 1968 Steinert alum “asks the best questions, and of course he writes great opinions” as one of the eight jurists on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Kavanaugh would become Alito’s colleague and the ninth justice on the high court if the U.S. Senate confirms his nomination.
State Sen. Linda Greenstein, a Democrat, does not agree with Alito’s conservative approach to jurisprudence but said he is “still a very impressive nice man.”
In addition to being a Steinert alumnus, Alito is also a 1972 graduate of Princeton University and received his law degree from Yale University in 1975. As a jurist, Alito formerly served as an appellate judge for the Third Circuit Court in New Jersey before he ascended to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006.
In their proposal to renovate and dedicate the school library in Alito’s honor, the Steinert students recognized that Alito “has primarily voted along conservative lines” as an associate justice on the Supreme Court. “This renovation and dedication will remind the students at Steinert that nothing is impossible, and motivate them to put in the hard work and determination to make their dreams a reality.”
Hamilton Schools Superintendent Scott Rocco said the district has made improvements to all three high school libraries in the district and that the libraries will soon be open to the students for extended hours after school.
“Libraries have played a big part in my life,” Alito said. “I’m glad this library will be open to students for longer hours.”
