Posted on 02/13/2008 8:16:00 PM PST by kellynla
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito Jr. has convicted "The Sopranos" of spreading what he says are stereotypes about Italian-Americans.
During a visit to Rutgers University on Wednesday, Alito complained that the hit HBO television drama not only associated Italian-Americans with the Mafia, but New Jerseyans, as well.
"You have a trifecta _ gangsters, Italian-Americans, New Jersey _ wedded in the popular American imagination," Alito said at an event sponsored by the Italian studies program at Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey.
Alito, himself an Italian-American, lived for nearly two decades in a West Caldwell home in the same area of New Jersey where the fictional Tony Soprano lived.
Alito told the gathering of about 100 people that a friend in California once sent him a map of "Sopranos"-related locations. "He wanted me to put down where my house was on the map," Alito said to laughs.
Alito's comments about "The Sopranos," which went off the air last year, were part of a talk in which the New Jersey native lamented that there are too many stereotypes about Italians in the United States.
He said the real story of Italian people who came here, some succeeding and some failing and going back to Italy, needed to be preserved because it told something about the United States' "true nature as a nation of immigrants."
Alito, 57, was born in Trenton, grew up in Hamilton Township and attended Princeton University before going to law school at Yale. Last year, Alito and his wife moved from West Caldwell to northern Virginia to be closer to his new job.
Since taking his seat on the court in January 2006, Alito has generally sided with other conservative members of the court, including fellow Trenton native, Antonin Scalia.
C’mon, Sammy. Sit down, eat something. Have a drink.
Sammy, Sammy. I know you how long? Please. Eat.
the successful half of my lineage is Italian. Senators, concert pianists, one very liberal SEC attorney...my grandfather built his house with his own two hands and it still stands today...
It’s a TV PROGRAM for craps sake!!
Korzine, Menendezzz and McGreedy aren’t Italian-American.
I remember when Corzine was running for the Senate in the Democratic primary in 2000. He got into trouble for joking that opponent Jim Florio has ties to the Mafia.
Alito should lighten up.
Here in South Jersey/Philadelphia area, many people of Italian descent were big fans of the show, The Sopranos, though some people complained about it.
But Alito is right. For a long time, it seemed that, whenever someone in politics had a vowel at the end of his or her name, the press was always looking for a mafia connection. Meanwhile, Bill and Hillary’s friends were meeting all sorts of mysterious demises, and the MSM never questioned them.
Justice Alito, is not only a great Jurist, he also has one hell of an ability to get Justice Kenndy to side with the Conservatives BY FAR MORE THAN NORMAL.
Justice Kennedy has been heavily influenced by Justive Alito’s easy to get along with Nature. The real reason Justice Alito has such influence on how Justice Kennedy will cast his vote, is because Sam Alito was is the only other Judge on the Supreme Court that has Trial Court Experience and Justice Anthony Kennedy is persuaded to side with his friends Justice Alito because they think alike in legal reasoning.
Justice Alito is by far, a much bigger Conservative Judicial Commodity to the Conservatives even more so than Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
Any left over concrete when he poured the foundation? ;-)
If I were to tell ya...
I bet the Saturday afternoon Harley riding baby boomer audience wouldn’t have been such a fan of the Sopranos if the show featured characters other than not particularly in-shape baby boomers that the audience could easily identify with.
Also, As Justice Kennedy Heard Oral arguments in the case of “Boumediene v. Bush”, heard in December 5, 2007, Court watchers all came away with the feeling that Justice Kennedy, was going to side with the Conservatives “Half Way” in this current Guantanamo Bay Detainee Court case.
You can only Thnak Justice Alito for this. Justice Roberts is more like Scalia than Justice Alito. Only Justice Alito had showed an ability to get though to Justice Kennedy to make him rule based on sound common sense reasoning.
Which is to rule AGAINST THE TERRORISTS !
Of course nobody had ever heard of the mafia before The Sopranos.
This is a BIG MOVE TO THE RIGHT for Justice Kennedy. In past cases on GITMO, Justice Kennedy always sided with the Liberals 100% of the time on these type of cases.
So meeting Conservatives “half way” is a massive 180 turn in the right direction. Justice Alito is the biggest reason, most Legal Scholars give as to Justice Kennedy’s sudden shift to the right, on the Supreme Court, in recent years.
He just didn’t like how the series ended. This is no way to express that however.
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS THE MAFIA!!! (sarc)
me I want whats coming to me. the world, and everything in it!
First there was the Union Corse, a French "mafia" based in New Orleans and Detroit, and at all the main stops along the river route, and then the railroads.
It was one of the reasons the Sicilian and Italian mob had to set up in Toledo and Chicago as the Midwest was developed ~ all the good spots had already been taken.
Their genius was to get the Italians in New Jersey blamed for all of it!
I love Alito and his conservative thoughts, but why complain about a show that has gone off the air a year ago??? Plus stereo type Italians??? Come on. Just concentrate on your job. We don’t need to hear from you. What happened to the Supreme Court being secret. I like it better the old way.
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