Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. was a member of the Yale Law School Class of 1975 and an editor of the Yale Law Journal. Judge Alito currently serves on the Journal’s Alumni Advisory Committee.

While a member of the Journal, Judge Alito published a student Note, The Released Time Cases Revisited: A Study of Group Decisionmaking by the Supreme Court. The Note analyzes the Supreme Court’s decisions in the so-called “released time” cases. These cases dealt with the question of whether public schools violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by allowing students to take religious education classes during school hours. The Note received the Israel H. Peres prize for best student contribution to the Yale Law Journal in 1974.

The citation for the Note is: Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Note, The Released Time Cases Revisited: A Study of Group Decisionmaking by the Supreme Court, 83 Yale L.J. 1202 (1974). It may be read here.