Samuel Alito Quotes

I was a prosecutor for 20 years.

I liked to go to court. I became a lawyer because of the allure of the courtroom, not necessarily to be chained to an office desk.

I was in the courtroom prosecuting violent felonies for well over a decade.

Well, my dad was the district attorney of New Orleans for about 30 years.

I will for ever, at all hazards, assert the dignity, independence, and integrity of the English bar; without which, impartial justice, the most valuable part of the English constitution, can have no existence.

I was interested in getting courtroom experience. When I was a young lawyer, the only way I could get real courtroom experience was in the criminal law field.

I was a prosecutor and an FBI agent for many, many years.

When I worked in the Department of Justice, in the office of the solicitor general, it was my job to argue cases for the United States before the Supreme court. I always found it very moving to stand before the justices and say, 'I speak for my country.'

I had the privilege of chairing Judge Samuel Alito confirmation hearing in 1990. And at that time, he had practiced law for 14 years, but only represented one client, the United States government.

I think most defense attorneys know, to some extent, their clients are guilty.

I've always had an affinity for lawyers. My dad is a lawyer. He's retired now. My brother is a lawyer. It's always been easy, the legalese.

And whether you're an honest man, or whether you're a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.

The vast majority of A.D.A.s put everything on the line to make sure justice is served. That's what I love about prosecutors and the New York police.

I'm a duty solicitor, so I can't fix someone's life; all I can do is fix the problem I've got in front of my eyes.

I was a prosecutor for many years, I'm a crime victim myself, and I've tried so many cases I don't even know how many anymore.

Certainly, when I was a boy, people liked to believe that lawyers were kind of pillars of goodness of the likes of Atticus Finch in 'To Kill a Mockingbird.'

Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a Crime in Progress is not a happy prospect.

The legal profession is overrun with money-makers, who regard it only as a business by which money is made, with little or no thought of the quality of the means used. We greatly need many more lawyers who regard the profession as a ministry in the temple of Justice.

A judge is just a lawyer who somebody's blessed.

All lawyers are the natural enemies of the police.

Whenever you see me at court, understand that I will aid you without fee or reward ... the written Constitution is my client and the preservation of its protection is the only fee I asked.

The experience of being a prosecutor gives us a sort of proctologists view of our society.

That's the best way to practice law, is writing about it and not having to be in the courtroom!

One of the reasons I love the law is because I was raised in family - my grandfather was a lawyer, but more importantly, my grandmother was his secretary. And she taught me that lawyers were some of the most civil, most courteous - and in those days, most courtly - people that she knew.

When I wanted to be an attorney, I think I wanted to be a litigator; I wanted to be in a courtroom.