106 Facts About Antonin Scalia

Antonin Gregory Scalia was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016.

Antonin Scalia was described as the intellectual anchor for the originalist and textualist position in the US Supreme Court's conservative wing.

Antonin Scalia spent most of the Carter years teaching at the University of Chicago, where he became one of the first faculty advisers of the fledgling Federalist Society.

Antonin Scalia advocated textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in constitutional interpretation, peppering his colleagues with "Ninograms" intending to persuade them to his point of view.

Antonin Scalia was a strong defender of the powers of the executive branch and believed that the US Constitution permitted the death penalty and did not guarantee the right to either abortion or same-sex marriage.

Furthermore, Antonin Scalia viewed affirmative action and other policies that afforded special protected status to minority groups as unconstitutional.

Antonin Scalia was born on March 11,1936, in Trenton, New Jersey.

Antonin Scalia was the only child of Salvatore Eugenio Scalia, an Italian immigrant from Sommatino, Sicily, who graduated from Rutgers University and was a graduate student at Columbia University and clerk at the time of his son's birth.

The elder Antonin Scalia would become a professor of Romance languages at Brooklyn College, where he was an adherent to the formalist New Criticism school of literary theory.

Antonin Scalia's mother, Catherine Louise Antonin Scalia, was born in Trenton to Italian immigrant parents and worked as an elementary school teacher.

Antonin Scalia achieved a 97.5 average at Xavier, earning decorations in Latin, Greek, and debate, among other subjects, in addition to being a distinguished member of its Glee club.

Antonin Scalia could have been a member of the Curia.

In 1953, Antonin Scalia enrolled at Georgetown University, where he majored in history.

Antonin Scalia became a champion collegiate debater in Georgetown's Philodemic Society and a critically praised thespian.

Antonin Scalia took his junior year abroad in Switzerland at the University of Fribourg.

Antonin Scalia then studied law at Harvard Law School, where he was a notes editor for the Harvard Law Review.

Antonin Scalia began his legal career at the law firm Jones, Day, Cockley and Reavis in Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked from 1961 to 1967.

Antonin Scalia was highly regarded at the law firm and would most likely have been made a partner but later said he had long intended to teach.

Antonin Scalia left the law firm to become a professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law in 1967, moving his family to Charlottesville.

Antonin Scalia repeatedly testified before congressional committees, defending Ford administration assertions of executive privilege regarding its refusal to turn over documents.

Antonin Scalia's view prevailed, and Ford vetoed the bill, but Congress overrode it.

In early 1976, Scalia argued his only case before the Supreme Court, Alfred Dunhill of London, Inc v Republic of Cuba.

Antonin Scalia then returned to academia, taking up residence at the University of Chicago Law School from 1977 to 1982, though he spent one year as a visiting professor at Stanford Law School.

When Ronald Reagan was elected president in November 1980, Antonin Scalia hoped for a major position in the new administration.

Antonin Scalia was interviewed for the position of Solicitor General of the United States, but the position went to Rex E Lee, to Scalia's great disappointment.

Antonin Scalia was offered a judgeship on the Chicago-based US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in early 1982 but declined it, hoping to be appointed to the more influential US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Antonin Scalia was confirmed by the US Senate on August 5,1982, and was sworn in on August 17,1982.

Antonin Scalia had the advantage of not having Bork's "paper trail"; the elder judge had written controversial articles about individual rights.

Antonin Scalia was called to the White House and accepted Reagan's nomination.

When Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on Antonin Scalia's nomination opened in August 1986, he faced a committee that had just argued divisively over the Rehnquist nomination.

Committee members had little taste for a second battle over Antonin Scalia and were in any event reluctant to oppose the first Italian-American Supreme Court nominee.

Antonin Scalia, who attended the hearing with his wife and nine children seated behind him, found time for a humorous exchange with Sen.

Antonin Scalia indicated that the law was an unwarranted encroachment on the executive branch by the legislative.

Antonin Scalia dissented, stating that the issuance of the Guidelines was a lawmaking function that Congress could not delegate and dubbed the Commission "a sort of junior-varsity Congress".

Antonin Scalia dissented, seeing no Presentment Clause difficulties and feeling that the act did not violate the separation of powers.

Antonin Scalia argued that authorizing the president to cancel an appropriation was no different from allowing him to spend an appropriation at his discretion, which had long been accepted as constitutional.

Antonin Scalia accused the majority of "spring[ing] a trap on the Executive" by ruling that it could hear cases involving persons at Guantanamo when no federal court had ever ruled that it had the authority to hear cases involving people there.

Antonin Scalia opined that the AUMF could not be read to suspend habeas corpus and that the Court, faced with legislation by Congress that did not grant the president power to detain Hamdi, was trying to "Make Everything Come Out Right".

In March 2006, Antonin Scalia gave a talk at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

In federalism cases pitting the powers of the federal government against those of the states, Antonin Scalia often took the states' positions.

In 2005, Scalia concurred in Gonzales v Raich, which read the Commerce Clause to hold that Congress could ban the use of marijuana even when states approve its use for medicinal purposes.

Antonin Scalia opined that the Commerce Clause, together with the Necessary and Proper Clause, permitted the regulation.

Antonin Scalia based that decision on Wickard v Filburn, which he now wrote "expanded the Commerce Clause beyond all reason".

Antonin Scalia rejected the existence of the negative Commerce Clause doctrine, calling it "a judicial fraud".

Antonin Scalia took a broad view of the Eleventh Amendment, which bars certain lawsuits against states in the federal courts.

Antonin Scalia argued that there is no constitutional right to abortion and that if the people desire legalized abortion, a law should be passed to accomplish it.

Antonin Scalia concurred only in part, writing, "Justice O'Connor's assertion, that a 'fundamental rule of judicial restraint' requires us to avoid reconsidering Roe cannot be taken seriously".

Antonin Scalia noted, "We can now look forward to at least another Term of carts full of mail from the public, and the streets full of demonstrators".

Antonin Scalia disagreed with O'Connor's opinion for the Court, holding that states and localities could institute race-based programs if they identified past discrimination and if the programs were designed to remedy the past racism.

Antonin Scalia noted in that matter his view that government can never have a compelling interest in making up for past discrimination by racial preferences:.

Antonin Scalia argued that laws that make distinctions between genders should be subjected to intermediate scrutiny, requiring that the gender classification be substantially related to important government objectives.

When, in 1996, the Court upheld a suit brought by a woman who wished to enter the Virginia Military Institute in the case of United States v Virginia, Scalia filed a lone, lengthy dissent.

Antonin Scalia said that the Court, in requiring Virginia to show an "extremely persuasive justification" for the single-sex admission policy, had redefined intermediate scrutiny in such a way "that makes it indistinguishable from strict scrutiny".

Antonin Scalia dissented from the opinion by Justice Kennedy, believing that Bowers had protected the right of the states to pass such measures and that the Colorado amendment was not discriminatory but merely prevented homosexuals from gaining favored status under Colorado law.

Also in 2013, Scalia dissented from the majority opinion in United States v Windsor.

Antonin Scalia argued that the judgment effectively characterized opponents of same-sex marriage as "enemies of the human race": He argued that the Court's ruling would affect state bans on same-sex marriage as well:.

In 2015, Scalia dissented from the majority opinion in Obergefell v Hodges, in which the Court ruled that the fundamental right to marry was guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Antonin Scalia claimed there was "no basis" for the Court to strike down legislation that the Fourteenth Amendment did not expressly forbid, and directly attacked the majority opinion for "lacking even a thin veneer of law".

Antonin Scalia dissented in decisions that hold the death penalty unconstitutional as applied to certain groups, such as those who were under the age of 18 at the time of offense.

Although, in many areas, Antonin Scalia's approach was unfavorable to criminal defendants, he took the side of defendants in matters involving the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees defendants the right to confront their accusers.

In multiple cases, Antonin Scalia wrote against laws that allowed alleged victims of child abuse to testify behind screens or by closed-circuit television.

Antonin Scalia maintained that every element of an offense that helps determine the sentence must be either admitted by the defendant or found by a jury under the Sixth Amendment's jury guarantee.

Antonin Scalia found the procedure impermissible because whether it was a hate crime had not been decided by the jury.

Antonin Scalia traced the word "militia", found in the Second Amendment, as it would have been understood at the time of its ratification, stating that it then meant "the body of all citizens".

Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner disagreed with Antonin Scalia's opinion, stating that the Second Amendment "creates no right to the private possession of guns".

In October 2008, Antonin Scalia stated that the court's originalists needed to show only that at the time the Second Amendment was ratified, the right to bear arms did not have an exclusively military context and that they were successful in so showing.

Antonin Scalia indicated his long-held position from the time of his 1983 law review article titled "The Doctrine of Standing as an Essential Element of the Separation of Powers".

Antonin Scalia stated that the Court should have remained away from the dispute and that the issues "are [not] better known to the nine Justices of this Court any better than they are known to nine people picked at random from the Kansas City telephone directory".

University of Kansas social psychologist Lawrence Wrightsman wrote that Antonin Scalia communicated "a sense of urgency on the bench" and had a style that was "forever forceful".

Antonin Scalia doesn't come into oral argument all secretive and sphinxlike, feigning indecision on the nuances of the case before him.

Antonin Scalia comes in like a medieval knight, girded for battle.

Antonin Scalia wrote numerous opinions from the start of his career on the Supreme Court.

Conor Clarke of Slate comments on Antonin Scalia's written opinions, especially his dissents:.

Antonin Scalia's writing style is best described as equal parts anger, confidence, and pageantry.

Antonin Scalia is highly accessible and tries not to get bogged down in abstruse legal jargon.

Antonin Scalia was a textualist in statutory interpretation, believing that the ordinary meaning of a statute should govern.

In interpreting statutes, Antonin Scalia did not look to legislative history.

In 1998, Antonin Scalia vociferously opposed the idea of a living constitution, or the power of the judiciary to modify the meaning of constitutional provisions to adapt them to changing times.

Antonin Scalia warned that if one accepted that constitutional standards should evolve with a maturing society, "the risk of assessing evolving standards is that it is all too easy to believe that evolution has culminated in one's own views".

Antonin Scalia compared the Constitution to statutes he contended were not understood to change their meaning through time.

Antonin Scalia described himself as an originalist, meaning that he interpreted the United States Constitution as it would have been understood when it was adopted.

Constitutional amendments, such as the 1868 Fourteenth Amendment, according to Antonin Scalia, were to be interpreted based on their meaning at the time of ratification.

Antonin Scalia's argument was based on the lack of an exception for groups such as corporations in the free speech guarantee in the Bill of Rights and on several examples of corporate political speech from the time of the adoption of the Bill of Rights.

Antonin Scalia responded to his critics that his originalism "has occasionally led him to decisions he deplores, like his upholding the constitutionality of flag burning", which according to Antonin Scalia was protected by the First Amendment.

In 2006, before George W Bush appointees Roberts and Alito had had time to make an impact, Rossum wrote that Scalia had failed to win converts among his conservative colleagues for his use of originalism, whereas Roberts and Alito, as younger men with an originalist approach, greatly admired Scalia battling for what he believed in.

Shortly after the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Newdow's favor but before the case came before the Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia spoke at a Knights of Columbus event in Fredericksburg, Virginia, stating that the Ninth Circuit decision was an example of how the courts were trying to excise God from public life.

The school district requested that the Supreme Court review the case, and Newdow asked that Antonin Scalia recuse himself because of this prior statement, which he did without comment.

Antonin Scalia was asked to recuse himself because he had gone on a hunting trip with various persons including Cheney, during which he traveled one way on Air Force Two.

Antonin Scalia issued a lengthy in-chambers opinion refusing to recuse himself, stating that though Cheney was a longtime friend, he was being sued merely in his official capacity and that were justices to step aside in the cases of officials who are parties because of official capacity, the Supreme Court would cease to function.

Antonin Scalia stated that he was never alone with Cheney during the trip, the two had not discussed the case, and the justice had saved no money because he had bought round-trip tickets, the cheapest available.

Antonin Scalia later described his refusal to recuse himself as his "most heroic opinion" because it had exposed him to a great deal of criticism.

Antonin Scalia was a devout traditionalist Catholic, and his son Paul entered the priesthood.

Antonin Scalia responded to the reports with a letter to the editor, accusing the news staff of watching too many episodes of The Sopranos and stating that the gesture was a strong brush-off.

On September 10,1960, Antonin Scalia married Maureen McCarthy at St Pius X church in Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

Antonin Scalia enjoyed a warm friendship with fellow Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, considered a member of the court's liberal wing, with the two attending the opera together and appearing together onstage as supernumeraries in Washington National Opera's 1994 production of Ariadne auf Naxos.

Antonin Scalia enjoyed a friendship with fellow Justice Elena Kagan, considered a member of the court's liberal wing.

When Justice David Souter retired, Antonin Scalia told David Axelrod, an adviser to then-President Barack Obama, that he hoped that Obama would nominate Kagan to replace him.

An avid hunter, Antonin Scalia taught Justice Kagan how to hunt; the two hunted ducks, birds, deer and antelope together.

Antonin Scalia's body was discovered on the morning of February 13,2016, in his room at Cibolo Creek Ranch in Shafter, Texas.

Antonin Scalia had gone quail hunting the afternoon before, and then dined as the guest of John B Poindexter, owner of the ranch.

Antonin Scalia did not see the body, which under Texas law is not required, nor did she order an autopsy.

Scalia's physician, Rear Admiral Brian P Monahan, told her Scalia had a history of heart trouble, including high blood pressure, and was recently deemed too weak to undergo surgery for a torn rotator cuff.

Antonin Scalia's remains were interred at a private ceremony at Fairfax Memorial Park in Fairfax, Virginia.

Antonin Scalia traveled to the nation's law schools, giving talks on law and democracy.

In 2009, after nearly a quarter century on the Court, Antonin Scalia characterized his victories as "damn few".

Cases that were pending before the Court at Antonin Scalia's death were decided by the remaining eight members.