White House Fights Race-Based Admissions Policies

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the court's swing voter, has a strong record of opposition to race-conscious government policies, including a dissenting vote in the 2003 case.

But Kennedy has been known to change his mind. Just in case he may be in play this time around, each Bush brief concludes with a quotation from Kennedy's 2003 dissent, in which he warned against policies that "perpetuate the hostilities that proper consideration of race is designed to avoid."

Lost Justice

It is not easy being new at the Supreme Court. O'Connor once wrote of her difficulties figuring out the Supreme Court's case-numbering system. And now Alito admits that there have been times during his first year when he literally did not know where he was.

"The Supreme Court building is one of the most confusing buildings I have ever been in," Alito told the Newark Star-Ledger last week. Wandering the grandiose structure, which is in the midst of a full-scale renovation, he "didn't know where anything was, how to get in or how to get out."

Alito confessed to difficulties switching on his microphone at oral arguments and to forgetting that it is the junior justice's job to answer the door when the justices gather for conferences. At his first one, someone knocked and, after a pause, Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who was the junior justice for 11 years before Alito came to the court, rose to answer it. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. had to remind Alito to get up.

Alito also revealed that he and his family are holding on to their home in suburban West Caldwell, N.J., while he rents an apartment in Washington. Trends in the real estate market are not necessarily in Alito's favor.

In West Caldwell, the median house price is about $500,000, according to Schweppe Burgdorff Realtors of New Jersey. But comparable areas around Washington are pricier. If the Alitos want to relocate to Chevy Chase, near Roberts (O'Connor, Alito's predecessor, lived there, too), they will face a median price of about $1.1 million, according to the Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors.

As an associate justice, Alito makes $203,000 per year. His most recent financial disclosure form put his assets at more than $665,000, not counting his house. That is not bad for a lifelong federal employee. But he has a son at the University of Virginia (2005-2006 tuition, room, board and fees: $32,000) and a daughter starting at Georgetown (ditto) this fall.

Maybe he can find something in Baltimore.