Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke at the Creighton School of Law’s Annual Dinner on Friday night. He had the audience in stitches.

Alito delivered the Koley Address, an annual event for the law school sponsored by The Omaha World-Herald and John Gottschalk, former chief executive officer of the paper. The event is normally called the Koley Lecture, but was called the Koley Address this year and was given at the Annual Dinner.

After the meal, Patrick Borchers, vice president of academic affairs and former law dean, made some opening remarks in which he thanked the school for his time as law dean.

He was followed by Eric Chiappinelli, the current dean of the law school. Chiappinelli expressed excitement about his new role as law dean and his new opportunity at Creighton, as well as Creighton’s bright future. Creighton is “a place that is really on the cusp of national recognition,” he said. He then announced Alito, the evening’s keynote speaker.

Alito’s talk covered a variety of topics, but he peppered his speech with a lot of humor. For example, he talked about how, as the newest member of the court, it is his job to answer the door when the judges are deliberating. When the first time came for Alito to answer the door, the much quicker Stephen Breyer, who had been the junior justice for 11 years, caught him flat-footed.

Alito also joked about some of the humorous citations his colleagues have made this past term. He referenced Justice Anton Scalia citation of Oscar the Grouch in a decision. He also noted that Chief Justice John Roberts may have been the first justice to cite lyrics from a rock song.

Jonathan Casper, third-year law student and president of the student body for the law school, was in attendance at the speech as a greeter. He was surprised by the tone of the addess.

“It was different than I expected. He was pretty funny,” he said.

However, Alito also talked about some serious topics during the address. For one thing, he praised his fellow justices on the Supreme Court.

“I could not have more respect for my colleagues,” he said.

The crux of his speech came toward the end, when Alito talked about interpreting the Constitution. He said that it is more important for the Supreme Court to base their decisions on what is in the Constituion, not on their own understandings of what they consider right.

“There’s nothing wrong with fairness and justice,” he said, adding that he thinks the Constitution is grounded in fairness and justice. “It is another thing to say judges should … implement their own interpretations of fairness and justice.”

He said he is pleased to see that most voters agree with him that the Supreme Court should base rulings on the Constitution. A 2008 Rasmussen Report found that 60 percent of voters believe the court should make rulings based on the Constitution while 30 percent think ruling should be made from senses of fairness and justice.

“I take solace from that fact,” he said. “May it always be so.”

Casper said Alito’s visit says a lot about Creighton that people like Alito feel comfortable visiting the campus.

John England, another third-year law student who acted as a greeter for the event, agreed, saying Alito’s visit was very beneficial to for Creighton and the law school.

“It puts us on the map,” he said. “A lot of law schools don’t get opportunities like that.”