And the Hi, I'm Bill Crystal.

Hi, I'm Bill Crystal.

Welcome to Conversations, and it's a great honor to have today.

Justice Samuel Alito, thank you for joining us, Justice Alito.

It's my pleasure.

Thanks for inviting me.

Good to have you.

So how did you learn you were going to become a Supreme Court justice?

That must be a striking moment in one's life?

Yeah, it was.

I remember it exactly.

I was sitting at my kitchen table at home in New Jersey,

drinking a cup of coffee.

And the phone, at this point on the appellate judge on the third circuit you know I had been there for 15 years and

the phone rang and it was a deputy

Counsel and White House Council's office, Bill Kelly, who called me to say that the president was seriously thinking about nominating me. Well, first he told me that Harriet Myers, who had been nominated for the seat, was going to withdraw,

and that was not public information at the time, and then he said the president was seriously

thinking about nominating me was I still

interested and I said yes I was still interested so that was really the

that wasn't the formal the formal offer and Andy Card, who was the chief of staff at the time, called my house

when I was at the office. My daughter answered the phone and so she took a message, Andy Card from the White House called.

Took a little while for her to realize what this might be about.

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