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The day after serving as keynote speaker at 91����� Aquinas College�s 50th Anniversary Gala, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., and his wife, Martha-Ann, visited the College�s California campus. After attending Mass in Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel and lunch with College officials and their spouses, the Justice participated in an hour-long town hall with President Michael F. McLean.

�How happy I am to be here,� reflected Justice Alito before an audience of some 400 students, faculty, and staff in St. Cecilia Lecture and Concert Hall. �I�ve enjoyed the opportunity to see this spectacular campus and attend the most beautiful Mass I have attended in years.�

Over the course of the hour-long discussion, Dr. McLean asked the Justice about a wide range of topics, starting with how he would define his judicial philosophy, which he has described as �Practical Originalism.� Responding that he aims to �do Originalism the way Originalism should be done by a Supreme Court justice,� Justice Alito argued that the theory�s practical application differs from its academic definition.

�Originalism is the idea that the Constitution has a fixed meaning; it doesn�t change. It means what people would have understood it to mean at the time it was written,� Justice Alito observed. �Applying Originalism as a justice, however, means you take into account some practical realities,� such as stare decisis, or the power of precedent. �If you are a strict academic originalist, you don�t have to worry about precedent. You might consider it prudent to go back and reconsider past cases. But this is not practical for a Supreme Court Justice,� he continued, adding that he �almost always follow[s] past decisions.�

Although the discussion did not touch upon many individual Supreme Court cases, Justice Alito offered his insight on the Court�s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which invoked the 14th Amendment to assert a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. �Liberty has meant a lot of different things to people throughout the ages; it is a very capacious term,� he remarked. �Whatever liberty means, though, in 1868 it did not mean the right to enter into a same-sex marriage. � Whatever you think about this, it�s not there in the 14th Amendment.�

Obergefell, he maintained, not only runs afoul of good jurisprudence, it establishes legal and cultural precedents that impinge on religious liberty. �That is what is happening. What we are seeing is that saying, �I cling to traditional values on marriage� is not something you can say any more.�

Such intolerance is part of a growing trend of cultural hostility toward Christianity and its adherents, the Justice lamented. �There is a real movement to suppress the expression of anything that opposes the secular orthodoxy,� connected to a latent anti-Catholicism that has resurfaced at times throughout American history: �The charge against Catholics from the beginning is that Catholics have rigid beliefs and are controlled by the pope, that they�re going to do what the pope says instead of what�s right for the country.� This hostility grows greater as the country becomes increasingly secularized. �If the society doesn�t respect religion,� Justice Alito explained, �religious liberty becomes imperiled.�

Pride, he noted, is a constant danger for jurists, who sit on a tall bench, and who are accustomed to being called �your honor� and seeing people rise whenever they enter a room. �There�s a tremendous temptation to think you�re really a big deal and look down on other people,� he warned. Yet the Faith is a constant reminder that �we�re all made in the image and likeness of God and equal in the way that matters most.�

At the end of the conversation, Justice Alito shared his impressions of 91����� Aquinas College, revisiting some of the themes from his keynote address the night before. �An institution like this teaches students to think,� the Justice averred, suggesting that the College�s academic program prepares graduates well for legal careers. He also reiterated his admiration for TAC�s founders.

�It was really a bold move, and something that went against the cultural winds and the cultural tide, to found this college in the early 1970s,� Justice Alito said. �But it is consistent with the best of our civilization, the marriage of Athens and Jerusalem.�