Supreme praise: A justice remembers a mentor

U.S. SUPREME Court Justice Samuel Alito said the late federal Judge Edward Becker, of Philadelphia, published more than 2,000 legal opinions, many so lengthy they included a table of contents.

So it seemed fitting yesterday that Alito, receiving a citizenship award named for Becker at Community College of Philadelphia, first listed "five aspects of Ed's life" that can serve as lessons on citizenship and community and then explored them all in much greater detail.

Alito served with Becker on the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Alito was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice three months before Becker's death in 2006.

Becker's lessons, according to Alito, were:

* Have a connection to the place you where live - Alito said Becker rode SEPTA's Market-Frankford El to work long after becoming a federal judge.

"He not only resided and worked in Philadelphia, he lived and breathed the city," Alito said. "He knew it intimately."

* Reach out to a diverse group of people - Alito said Becker told him judges are vulnerable to "black robe disease," brought on by the constant deference shown to them in court and in public.

Becker, Alito said, urged law clerks to speak their minds if they disagreed with him. He avoided the isolation that can come in the life of judges, who have federal court elevators, floors of offices and a dining room set aside exclusively for their use.

"Every day, Ed would buy a copy of the Philadelphia Daily News because he didn't want to be cut off from the perspective of the lawyers who read that tabloid," Alito said.

* Real concern for real people encountered in daily life - Alito said Becker advised against taking anyone for granted, calling himself the "courthouse ward leader," someone people could bring their problems to.

"It is sometimes a lot easier to love people in general than it is to love people in particular," Alito said. "Ed was not like that."

* An improving spirit - Alito said Becker was known to declare "That's a damn outrage" whenever he took on a new project. One example was his work to reopen the block of Chestnut Street between Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell Pavilion after it was closed for security reasons after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

* Hard work, public service and striving for excellence - Alito said Becker was "a legendary worker" who read legal briefs during halftime of Eagles games and during intermissions at Mann Center concerts.

"He once gave me this advice about getting a haircut," Alito said. "He said I was wasting time by not working while I was getting a haircut."