--- description: Find out why Samuel Alito is one of the 100 most influential people of 2023. title: Samuel Alito: The 100 Most Influential People of 2023 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94505ebd86697960/698a3bcb457a52d440d67782/Samuel-Alito-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 13, 2023 # Samuel Alito by Tessa Berenson Rogers  Associate US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito poses for the official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on October 7, 2022\. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images) Associate US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito poses for the official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on October 7, 2022\. (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY / AFP) (Photo by OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)Olivier Douliery—AFP/Getty Images In June 2022, the conservative legal movement’s [half-century-long project to overturn ](https://time.com/6189476/abortion-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade/ "undefined")[_Roe v. Wade_](https://time.com/6189476/abortion-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade/ "undefined") was completed with a stroke of Samuel Alito’s pen. It was no accident that Alito, a Catholic stalwart of the Supreme Court’s right flank since George W. Bush’s presidency, was chosen to write the majority opinion in the decision that rolled back abortion rights nationwide and reshaped reproductive health care in the U.S. His [_Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization_](https://time.com/6116072/mississippi-abortion-supreme-court-jackson-womens-health/ "undefined") decision—which [leaked in a stunning breach](https://time.com/6173019/supreme-court-leak-roe-v-wade-abortion/ "undefined") of Supreme Court protocol weeks before the official release—is strident and self-assured, declaring _Roe_ “egregiously wrong” and comparing it to the infamous case that established the “separate but equal” segregation doctrine. Abortion has been thrown back into the political arena, and a new generation of women are fighting the same reproductive-rights battles their grandmothers once did. Alito has been on the Supreme Court for 17 years. But in 2022, he cemented his legacy. _Rogers is a TIME editor_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269867/samuel-alito/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269867/samuel-alito/"},"headline":"Samuel Alito","datePublished":"2023-04-13T10:32:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:05.686Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269867/samuel-alito/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","sponsorshipblock","TIME100 2023"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94505ebd86697960/698a3bcb457a52d440d67782/Samuel-Alito-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt94505ebd86697960/698a3bcb457a52d440d67782/Samuel-Alito-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269867/samuel-alito/","name":"Samuel Alito"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME100 | The 100 Most Influential People of 2023","description":"See all the people on Time's 2023 Time 100 list","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/P6RIsapV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-04-13T10:30:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P6RIsapV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269867/samuel-alito/","duration":"PT1M53S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269867/samuel-alito/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```