For The Archives -- US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito -- Not Ready For Prime Time -- September 5, 2022

This is for the archives, for my grandchildren. This has nothing to do with the Bakken. 

The New Yorker, September 5, 2022, has an incredibly good essay on Justice Samuel Alito. The article is by Margaret Talbot, and runs a full 13-pages, and that doesn't include a fourteenth full-page drawing/sketch/painting of the judge.

I still have three full pages to finish but I'm enjoying all of it.

The writer is obviously biased, liberal, progressive, but one would expect that before reading it knowing it was in The New Yorker. But, surprisingly, the article is fairly well-balanced. What I might not like is easily made up for the background that Talbot provides: the personal background of Justice Alito, his family, his education; the background of the US Supreme Court during his tenure; and, the background of Dobbs (re-visiting Row v Wade). 

I'm sure the article is behind a paywall but if you have access to a hard copy at the library or access some other way, it's definitely worth seeking it out / definitely worth reading.

It was interesting to see how Justice Alito was selected to write the opinion. He was not selected by the Chief Justice. Had he selected the justice to write the opinion, the chief justice would have likely written it himself but he did not have that choice.

But I digress.

More than anything I enjoyed re-living the 60's and New Jersey. I spent a lifetime in New Jersey one summer.

I was born in 1951. Samuel Alito was born in 1950, so we are almost exact contemporaries. One year older than I, the first question, what was his draft number and what did he do during the [Vietnam] war? He matriculated at Princeton in 1968. In 1969, the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam and the SDS marched at Princeton. The writer, Margaret Talbot, conveniently does  not tell us Alito's military history of if she does, I missed it. See end of this post.

Princeton went coed in Alito's sophomore year (1969). Alito enrolled in ROTC at Princeton and was dismayed when the school voted in 1970 to end the program over the next two years. 

In 1973, the year after Alito graduated, the Supreme Court issued its Roe decision.

At that very time, the love of my life -- at the time -- one year older than Alito, graduated from Rutgers, and had entered medical school at Harvard, graduating in 1975. [My dates may be slightly wrong.] 

Rutgers went coed September, 1970. [On June 26, 1976, 157 women entered the USAF Academy with the class of 1980. While in the Mediterranean Sea, if I recall correctly, the two pilots on my transport plane were members of that class. That was probably late 1980s.]

But the point is that while Alito was about as conservative and anti-feminist as one could be in the 1970s, the love of my life -- at the time -- was at the opposite end of the spectrum.

Those were incredibly "tough" times for those of us coming of age -- those of us sixteen years old to twenty-six years old -- at that time. I know I am biased, but it's hard to think of any ten-year, maybe fifteen-year period after 1960 that has been more challenging for those of us coming of age at that time. Three things stand out:

• feminism and the pill
• civil rights and the assassinations
• the Vietnam War.

My lottery number in 1969 was 103. The government selected men with lottery numbers up to 125 in 1969. There are only 365 days in the year. That meant that 35% of men who turned 18 in 1969 were called up. Not all were "selected," of course, but think about that; 35% of all 18-year-olds were interviewed by their local draft board. I was. I remember that. 

And that lottery number of 125 was just for one year. This went on for several years.

I assume "everyone" has read multiple books on the latter two issues -- civil rights and the assassinations; and, the Vietnam War. My hunch is that very few folks have read the definitive history of the pill. I read that book for the first time about four years ago. Very, very enlightening. For those folks who thought developing a Covid vaccine, they need to read the "science" history of the pill. No comparison.


The love of my life -- at that time -- had me read Portrait of a Marriage, c. 1973, published the year I graduated from college; published during her second year of medical school. [Or maybe I found that one on my own; I forget.] Regardless she had me read Open Marriage, published the year before. Open Marriage was a prerequisite before we could get married. About Open Marriage, from wiki:

Open Marriage: A New Life Style for Couples was a best selling book published by M. Evans & Company in 1972 by Nena O'Neill and George O'Neill. It was on the New York Times best-seller list for 40 weeks. It has been translated into 14 languages and has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide.

The book redefined the meaning of the term "open marriage" and helped foster a sexual revolution in the 1970s. The O'Neills conceived open marriage as one in which each partner has room for personal growth and can develop outside friendships. Most chapters in the book dealt with non-controversial approaches to revitalizing marriage in areas of trust, role flexibility, communication, identity, and equality. The authors intended "to strip marriage of its antiquated ideals and romantic tinsel and find ways to make it truly contemporary.

The love of my life -- at that time -- had one other prerequisite before we could get married. I had to broaden and explore an unspecified number of relationships with other women before marrying her. 

And, so all of that comes flooding back while reading the essay on Justice Samuel Alito. 

Because I'm older now, settled for 40+ years now with the love of my life, re-reading this history no longer gets me as excited as it once would have. I can read it detached, but still with complete personal interest. 

I saw a documentary on Lifetime last night about Hugh Hefner and Playboy. I sometimes wonder if the sexual revolution did not have a greater effect on America than the other two phenomena of the 60s: the civil rights movement and the assassinations; and, the Vietnam War. 

With regard to Alito's military service, from Ballotpedia:

Alito was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War on December 1, 1969. 

He deferred his service while enrolled in college. 

While at Princeton, he joined the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) so that he could enter active service as an officer after college. Alito was commissioned as a second lieutenant after his graduation from Princeton, but deferred his service a second time as he entered Yale Law School. 

After graduation from law school, he served three months of active service from September to December of 1975. Alito served in the Army Reserve from 1972 until 1980, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of captain.

I would have been drafted in calendar year, 1970, but I would have been deferred twice for the same general reasons. Where Alito served most of his career in the Reserves, I served in the active force.