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Alito "not an ideologue," Albert says
Alito’s former professor calls Supreme Court nominee "fair-minded"
By JESSICA KELTZ
Reporter Contributor
Lee Albert, a longtime UB law professor who taught at Yale University in the early 1970s, worked closely with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr., and says that although Alito may be conservative, he's also "fair-minded" and in many ways an ideal candidate for the judiciary.
"He was one of the dozen students in a long teaching career who I feel I know very well," Albert says. "I think he was a superb individual."
While attending Yale, Alito worked as Albert's research assistant, and the two have kept in touch over the years. While Albert says he doesn't read Alito's decisions or keep close tabs on his political views, he has been pleased to see his former student achieve so much professional success.
"I guess I wasn't surprised as his career took off," Albert says. "But if somebody had told me in law school that this fellow was going to be a judge in the Third Circuit and then maybe more, you would have looked at him quizzically."
Sam Alito graduated from Princeton University in 1972 and from Yale University law school in 1975. He worked as assistant to the U.S. solicitor general, deputy assistant to the U.S. attorney general and U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey before being nominated to the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1990. On Monday, President Bush appointed Alito to fill Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court.
Albert says that as a student, Alito didn't show the type of ambition many Yale students did during that turbulent point in history.
"He wouldn't be the first to join some movement," Albert recalls. "He was concentrating on becoming a good lawyer and learning a lot of law."
Albert says Alito was "serious, somber, on the quiet side," contrasting his demeanor with that of students like Hillary Rodham Clinton, who Albert also had in class, and who he says clearly wanted to make a name for herself.
"There are people who you meet and you just know they want to go somewhere. And in a hurry too," he says. "He never showed pride, or vanity ... and I happen to like people who don't show that, so he and I got along very well."
Albert describes his own views as on "the opposite end of the political spectrum" from Alito's.
"But in many ways I'm delighted with his nomination," Albert says. "He was designed for this job. Those are the kinds of people we want on the bench.
"He's not an ideologue and I want to make that very clear," he adds.
Albert says that he's no more familiar with Alito's political or judicial philosophy than the next American who has been reading about him in the news for the past few days, and he says that conservatives are probably right to be excited about the nomination.
"Do the conservatives have a reason to believe he leans in that direction?" he asks. "Well, that is correct. He's conservative in the sense that he believes in the careful and limited use of judicial power. But I think that he will be a very open-minded, fair-minded judge."
Albert expects Alito to acquit himself very well during Senate confirmation hearings. He anticipates that he will `be confirmed, even if there is a drawn out political battle over his confirmation.
"People did have genuinely good reason to question Harriet Miers' nomination to the court. She didn't have the experience to support her nomination," Albert says. "That is not true of Sam. He's been training every day, every minute of his professional life for this."