A Better-Smelling Phillie Phanatic Helped Welcome Alito to Supreme Court
Evidently colleagues of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. were aware of his loyalties from the moment he joined the court.
In the second of a two-part interview with the Philadelphia Daily News, Alito tells how he was welcomed to the court by the Phillie Phanatic, a mascot that he had met once before in a memorable encounter.
On the first meeting, Alito told the newspaper, he threw out the first pitch at a Phillies game on Father’s Day 2006. “I had been very physically close to the Phanatic at that time and I could tell that [the] on-the-field uniform is fragrant, as you would expect,” he said.
The second meeting was at Alito’s welcome dinner, arranged by the court’s then-junior justice, Stephen G. Breyer. Toward the end of the dinner, Breyer announced a special guest. “He opened the door and the Phillie Phanatic came in and gave me a big hug,” Alito recalls. “And it was great.”
This time, though, there was a difference. “When he came here he smelled like a flower,” Alito said, “so either he got [the costume] dry-cleaned or he has his traveling suit.”
Hat tip to How Appealing.
Prior coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “How Justice Alito Would Vote on Hall of Fame”
