Antonin Scalia

Antonin 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. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan, he was a foundational figure in the modern conservative legal movement and a leading proponent of textualism in statutory interpretation and originalism in constitutional interpretation. Known for his sharp intellect, acerbic wit, and forceful dissents, he left a profound and enduring mark on American law and the judicial philosophy of the federal judiciary.

Early life and education

He was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and raised in the Elmhurst neighborhood of New York City. His father, S. Eugene Scalia, was a professor of Romance languages at Brooklyn College and an immigrant from Sicily, while his mother was a first-generation Italian-American elementary school teacher. He attended Xavier High School, a Jesuit military academy in Manhattan, graduating first in his class. He then earned his Bachelor of Arts in history, graduating *summa cum laude*, from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he was a champion collegiate debater. He subsequently attended Harvard Law School, serving as note editor for the Harvard Law Review and graduating *magna cum laude* in 1960.

Legal career and academia

After law school, he practiced law for several years at the Cleveland firm of Jones Day. In 1967, he began a career in academia, teaching law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He entered public service during the Nixon administration, serving from 1971 to 1972 as general counsel for the Office of Telecommunications Policy and from 1972 to 1974 as chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States. He returned to academia in 1977 as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, where he also edited the influential journal *Regulation* and became a leading voice in the law and economics movement. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a prestigious court often considered a stepping stone to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court tenure

In 1986, Reagan nominated him to the Supreme Court to fill the seat vacated when Associate Justice William Rehnquist was elevated to Chief Justice. His confirmation by the United States Senate was unanimous, 98–0. During his three decades on the Court, he became its most prominent conservative intellectual, often forming a solid bloc with Justices Clarence Thomas, William Rehnquist, and later Samuel Alito. He authored landmark majority opinions in cases like *District of Columbia v. Heller* (2008), which affirmed an individual right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, and *Employment Division v. Smith* (1990), which reshaped Free Exercise Clause jurisprudence. He was equally famous for his vivid and sometimes scathing dissents in cases such as *Obergefell v. Hodges* (2015), which legalized same-sex marriage, and *King v. Burwell* (2015), which upheld a key component of the Affordable Care Act.

Jurisprudence and philosophy

His judicial philosophy was defined by a commitment to originalism—the view that the Constitution should be interpreted according to its original public meaning at the time of its adoption—and textualism, which focuses strictly on the ordinary meaning of the words in a statute. He vigorously criticized the use of legislative history and the concept of a "living Constitution," arguing such approaches allowed judges to impose their own policy preferences. This philosophy led him to take principled, often libertarian-leaning stances, such as defending First Amendment protections in *Texas v. Johnson* (flag burning) and advocating for robust Sixth Amendment confrontation rights in *Crawford v. Washington*. His ideas, disseminated through opinions, speeches, and books, fundamentally reshaped conservative legal thought and inspired a generation of lawyers and judges.

Personal life and death

He married Maureen McCarthy in 1960, and they had nine children, one of whom, Eugene Scalia, served as the United States Secretary of Labor. A devout Catholic, he was a regular attendee at the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Maryland. An avid hunter and opera enthusiast, he maintained a close, famed friendship with his ideological opposite on the Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He died in his sleep of natural causes on February 13, 2016, at a ranch in Shafter, Texas, while on a hunting trip. His death created a vacancy that sparked a major political confrontation, leading to the eventual appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch by President Donald Trump. Category:Associate justices of the Supreme Court of the United States Category:American legal scholars Category:1936 births Category:2016 deaths