Was Bush Wrong About Alito's Father?

By Jeralyn, Section Sam Alito
Posted on Tue Dec 06, 2005 at 05:04:48 AM EST
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When announcing Judge Sam Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, President Bush said:

I'm sure, as well, that Judge Alito is thinking of his mom, Rose, who will be 91 in December. And I know he's thinking about his late father. Samuel Alito Sr. came to this country as a immigrant from Italy in 1914. And his fine family has realized the great promise of our country.

London Yank at Daily Kos checked out the elder Alito's military records (available online) for WWII.

Samuel Alito of Mercer, New Jersey was born in 1914 in New Jersey. There are codes on the data set for "Nativity" as well as "Citizenship" so there is no possibility of error here - unless Sam Sr. lied when he enlisted in 1938 to serve his country.

Go here and type in serial number 32186682. It appears that Sam Alito enlisted on 3/14/41 as a private. He was born in New Jersey in 1914. At the time of his enlistment, he was single and a teacher.

The New York Times reports that many of the elder Alito's friends were surprised to hear Bush refer to him as an immigrant:

...some colleagues and friends of the elder Mr. Alito, who died in 1987, said they had never heard some of the stories his son has recounted, including the episode about his support for the black student and the fact that his father immigrated from Italy as a child. Some of the elder Mr. Alito's colleagues said they first learned that he was born in Italy when President Bush mentioned it in announcing the nomination.

According to a commenter at Daily Kos,

the 1930 census records show Alito's grandfather, Anthony, came to the US in 1913. His wife, Mary, and his son Samuel (our Samuel's dad), came in 1914, which is also the year Sam père was born. The census record states that all three were born in Italy, and as of 1930, Anthony had been naturalized, but not Mary or Samuel père.

Personally, I think that Samuel père may have fudged his birthplace when he joined the army. That is, he might simply have failed to mention he was born in Italy.

The only reason this matters is because Bush is heralding Alito as the child of an immigrant who came to this