Judicial SIGHT-ation: Judge Alito Drowns Sorrows in Pizza

This blog has been the source of numerous celebrity sightings of Judge Samuel A. Alito. UTR correspondents have spotted Judge Alito on his way to get coffee and at a local supermarket (where he bagged his own groceries). Indeed, Article III Groupie fears that it's only a matter of time before she and her readers are slapped with a temporary restraining order, directing them to stay 500 feet away from Judge Alito.

But before that happens, let's get in one more judicial sightation of Judge Alito! Here it is:

Hi A3G. It's your loyal Newark correspondent, writing in with a judicial sightation of your beloved SCOTUS nominee, Judge Samuel Alito.

This sighting is an oldie, but a goodie; it took place a few weeks ago. I wasn't going to share it with you at first because it arguably places Judge Alito is a less-than-flattering light. But now that his own mother* has openly talked about how disappointed Judge Alito was when he didn't get nominated the first time around, losing out to Harriet Miers, I feel at liberty to share this with you.

On the Friday after the Miers nomination was announced (on that Monday), I was walking along Broad Street in downtown Newark with a few colleagues. We were on our way back from lunch. And suddenly, my heart skipped a beat. Like any good Article III groupie, I recognized the man walking toward us, heading down Broad Street in the other direction: the Honorable Samuel A. Alito, Jr.!

Judge Alito was walking by himself, unaccompanied by his law clerks, and he was looking absolutely inconsolable. His face bore an expression of the most exquisite and profound sadness -- a look of misery so intense that only the great Isabelle Huppert could conjure it up. If I knew any of this year's Alito clerks, I would have whipped out my cell phone then and there, called one of them up, and said, "Remove all sharp objects from chambers immediately!"

As we walked past Judge Alito, I looked over my shoulder to see where he was heading. He walked into Queen Pizza -- an eatery that some of us refer to, with a mix of affection and indigestion, as "the pizza dump." The pizza at Queen is decent and cheap ($1.50 a slice). But it's hardly an establishment fit for an Article III demigod! The thought of a Supreme Court short-lister eating there depressed me.

Here's my speculation: devastated by his losing the Supreme Court nomination to Harriet Miers, Sam Alito was heading in to the Queen to grab some Italian comfort food. Perhaps he ordered up a plate full of ziti, just like Mamma Rose used to make?

By the way, A3G, rumor has it that the Alito clerks maintain their own (ironic?) version of Zagat's, dedicated to describing Newark's many fine eateries (yes, that was sarcastic). If the Michelin Guide can make it to New York, can a hop across the Hudson to Newark be far behind?

A3G thanks her reader for this scrumptious sightation. It appears that Supreme Court nominees enjoy a slice of pizza every now and then (as do the justices themselves; Justice Scalia reportedly frequents AV Ristorante, where he orders pizza with anchovies). Supreme Court justices: They're just like us!!!

On a somewhat related note, in light of the news reports quoting Rose Alito concerning her son's disappointment when Harriet Miers was nominated, some of you have asked whether Judge Alito might be the judge mentioned in this "Justice Is Blind" item (item #3). Alas, A3G can neither confirm nor deny the identities of any of the judges mentioned in her blog's blind items (which are some of the most sensitive and controversial things that she publishes). She appreciates your understanding.

* Since her son's nomination to the Supreme Court, poor Rose Alito, besieged by the media, has become "a prisoner in her longtime home" (as reported in The Trentonian, via How Appealing).

Comments

[anon]

Judge Alito's clerks do have the Zagat guide. And Judge Alito does go to the Queen Deli on occasion.

Judidial Sight-ation in Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal:
BY JAMES TARANTO
Friday, November 11, 2005 2:28 p.m. EST

Hats Off to Harriet
WASHINGTON--So we met Harriet Miers last night. The White House counsel and erstwhile Supreme Court nominee was in attendance at the Federalist Society's gala dinner, where her colleague Karl Rove delivered a speech denouncing judicial imperialism (text at the link above). When another speaker noted Miers's presence, she got a round of applause from the assembled legal eagles, many of whom had opposed her nomination to the high court.

It would have been easy for her to skip the event, and one might think it would have been more comfortable, given how much opposition her nomination, withdrawn just two weeks earlier, had stirred up among this crowd--especially since one rap against her was a disparaging comment she made about the Federalist Society back in 1989. But she went, and she got a warm reception. We chatted with her briefly after dinner and found her most gracious. We haven't changed our mind about the nomination, but we can say Harriet Miers is a class act.

We were scheduled to speak to the Federalist Society's New Orleans chapter last September and again this September, but both appearances were canceled because of inclement weather. Things were more clement, not to mention eponymous, in Washington, where our Federalist friends seated us with Judge Edith Clement, the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit jurist who sits temporarily in Virginia until the Crescent City courthouse dries out. We got to babble, burble, banter and bicker with many other leading legal minds, including Steve Calabresi, Edith Jones, Ed Meese, Diarmuid O'Scannlain, Bill Pryor, Ken Starr and Eugene Volokh. These events have something of the feel of a family reunion, and it was nice to be able to welcome Miers into the fold.

[anon]

You should totally ask for readers to take photographs of these judges at everyday places to have an US Weekly knockoff A3Judges -- Just Like US