Supreme Court nominee had conflict of interest in case, Boston lawyer asserts.

Byline: L. Stuart Ditzen

Nov. 1--A Boston law professor asserted two years ago that he had found a clear conflict of interest involving Samuel A. Alito Jr., who was nominated Monday for the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The merits on this are a slam dunk in my view," said John G.S. Flym, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law, in a 2003 interview.

Flym contended that Alito, a judge on the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, had improperly participated in a case involving the Vanguard Group at a time when he held investments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in Vanguard mutual funds.

Whether Flym was correct was …