I don't have any answers, but
this AP story leaves me with a lot of questions regarding Judge Samuel Alito's net worth.
Here are the money quotes(!), not necessarily in order of their appearance in the article:
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has more than $615,000 in assets, including stock in Exxon Mobil Corp. worth more than $100,000, according to his 2004 financial disclosure statement.
Alito received the Exxon-Mobil stock, which could be worth as much as $250,000, as a bequest in May 2004. His disclosure form did not provide the source of the bequest, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
A bequest? Who died and made Alito rich?
And who keeps gifting Alito with other stocks (see below)? Why would they do that? The man's never worked in the private sector... he's been in public service all his life.
More from AP:
While the Exxon-Mobil stock was his largest holding in 2004, Alito also owned stock worth $15,000 and $50,000 each in fast-food giant McDonalds and Intel, the computer chip maker; and stock worth less than $15,000 each in drug-maker Bristol Myers Sqibb and Disney.
Both the Bristol Myers Sqibb stock and the McDonalds were listed as gifts on Alito's 2003 disclosure form.
As much as $65K in stock "gifts"?
Alito's total assets were worth between $615,000 and $1.6 million at the end of last year. He earned between $11,000 and $47,000 in interest, dividends and capital gains on his investments during 2004, in addition to his $167,600 judicial salary.
Well, he's making out better on the tax breaks than most, as Bush intended. But back to the real question:
Does anybody know why an appellate court judge would be given large gifts of stock in major corporations?