A 55-year-old Roman Catholic of Italian descent, Judge Alito was appointed to the federal appeals courts in 1990 by the first President George Bush.
The following year he voted to uphold all restrictions on abortion in Pennsylvania law, requiring a woman to notify her husband before an abortion.
This was struck down by the Supreme Court in a decision that reaffirmed the landmark Roe v Wade case.
Reports say that President Bush believes that Judge Alito has the right experience and conservative ideology for the job.
He has been compared to conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and his nomination faced strong opposition from Democrats.
The Democrat leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, has warned that he would "create a lot of problems" at the US top court.
'No agenda'
Before his 1990 appointment to the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, Mr Alito served as US attorney for New Jersey for three years.
SAMUEL ALITO
He had previously worked in the Reagan administration's justice department.
Mr Alito, who was born in Trenton, New Jersey, studied at Princeton and Yale.
Timothy Lewis, a former appellate court judge who served with Mr Alito and differs with him ideologically, told AP news agency he thought he would make a good Supreme Court justice.
"There is nobody that I believe would give my case a more fair and balanced treatment," he said.
"He has no agenda. He's open-minded, he's fair and he's balanced."
Other notable cases involving Mr Alito include:
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