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Antonin Scalia

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Justice Antonin Scalia

Justice Antonin Scalia == 

(born March 11, 1936) (sometimes known by the nickname "Nino") has been a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice since 1986. He is a prominent conservative and originalist voice on the Court and one of the most outspoken defenders of textualism.

Early life

Antonin Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey. His mother, Catherine, was born in the United States; his father, S. Eugene, a professor of romance languages, emigrated from Sicily at age 15. When Scalia was five years old, his family moved to Queens, New York City, New York, during which time his father worked at Brooklyn College.

Scalia attended Xavier High School, a Catholic and Jesuit school in Manhattan. He graduated first in his class and summa cum laude with an A.B. from Georgetown University in 1957. While at Georgetown, he also studied at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and went on to study law at Harvard Law School (where he was a Notes Editor for the Harvard Law Review). He graduated from Harvard in 1960, becoming a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University the following year. The fellowship allowed him to travel throughout Europe during 1960-1961.

On September 10, 1960, Scalia married Maureen McCarthy,JESSICA I LOVE YOU,PLEASE MARRY ME!!!!!-Steven Creager an English major at Radcliffe College. Together they have nine children – Ann Forrest, Eugene, John Francis, Catherine Elisabeth, Mary Clare, Paul David (now a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Arlington at St. Rita's Catholic Church), Matthew, Christopher James, and Margaret Jane.

Scalia is sometimes referred to by the nickname "Nino", and his colleagues refer to the frequent short case-related memos he sends them as Ninograms. [1]

He began his legal career at Jones, Day, Cockley and Reavis in Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked from 1961-1967. He became a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia in 1967. In 1971, he went into government service. He began as the general counsel, for the Office of Telecommunications Policy, under President Richard Nixon. His major accomplishment here was to formulate a policy for the growth of cable television. From 1972 to 1974, he was the chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States. He served from 1974 to 1977 in the Ford administration as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department.

He returned to academia in 1977 to the University of Chicago Law School from 1977-1982, and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center and Stanford University. He was chairman of the American Bar Association's Section of Administrative Law, 1981-1982, and its Conference of Section Chairmen, 1982-1983.

He was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982. Then, in 1986, President Reagan nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to fill in the vacancy left by William Rehnquist, who had been elevated to Chief Justice. Scalia was approved by the Senate in a vote of 98-0 and he took his seat on September 26, 1986. He is the first Italian-American Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

[== COW I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! ==]

Scalia is considered the Court's leading proponent of constitutional originalism. He is careful to distinguish his philosophy of original meaning from original intent. Scalia is also the leading proponent of textualism, a school of jurisprudence that emphasizes careful adherence to the text of both the Constitution of the United States and federal statutes.

Scalia's originalism frequently puts him on the conservative side of the Court in constitutional cases, but occasionally brings results that defy conservative administrations. He notably joined the majority without qualification in Texas v. Johnson, which ruled that flag burning was protected speech. In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, Scalia's dissent was the most restrictive upon the government's power to deal with U.S. citizens alleged to be "unlawful combatants," arguing that legally there was no basis for such a designation and that ordinary criminal prosecution was effectively the only option. In Ring v. Arizona, Scalia eloquently expressed his view that under the Sixth Amendment only a jury — and not a judge — could impose the death penalty, writing, "We cannot preserve our veneration for the protection of the jury in criminal cases if we render ourselves callous to the need for that protection by regularly imposing the death penalty without it." Leading on directly and logically from Ring and earlier Scalia opinions devoted to preservation of a meaningful right to jury trial, Scalia wrote for the majority in Blakely v. Washington, which sent shock waves through both the state and federal criminal sentencing systems by ruling that sentences could not be increased because of facts determined by judges rather than juries.

On the controversial issue of abortion, Scalia has argued that the Constitution leaves the people of the states free to legislate for or against abortion, "if the people want abortion, the state should permit abortion in a democracy."

Though Scalia often relies upon tradition and history to discern the original meaning of constitutional provisions, when interpreting statutory language he considers legislative history to be an inferior and unreliable interpretive tool. His disdain for legislative history is a central tenet of Scalia's textualism and is infused with an appreciation for public choice theory and the realities of legislative compromise -- the statutory text being the only reliable evidence of the deal that was struck. This position often puts him at odds with Justice Breyer, who is perhaps the Court's most steadfast proponent of attempting to discern and vindicate the overarching legislative objectives of statutes, and who values legislative history in that pursuit.

Scalia has proved to be what some call "libertarian" in certain cases; for instance, in a 5-4 ruling, Scalia found that the government could not use a thermal imaging device to scan one's home unless there was a warrant. In 2004, Scalia wrote a dissenting opinion that the President's detention of enemy combatants was an unconstitutional suspension of the writ of habeas corpus; the only other member of the court to share that view was John Paul Stevens, the Court's most liberal justice.

Beyond his legal philosophy, Scalia is well known for his lively questioning during arguments before the court; one litigator who argued before the Court compared Scalia's questioning style to "a big cat batting around a ball of yarn" ([2]). In his concurring and dissenting opinions, he frequently takes what may be characterized as sarcastic and biting "potshots" at the other justices, quoting them from past opinions to point out what he considers inconsistencies in their reasoning, or accusing them of inventing legal standards out of thin air.

Important cases

This section lists cases which form an essential introduction to Scalia's jurisprudence, views and writing style.

Unless otherwise specified, Scalia wrote in dissent from the Court in each case.

Current term:

Sixth Amendment case study

There is a particularly strong line of cases, beginning in 1989 and reaching its logical conclusion last term in Booker, which illustrates Scalia's writing style and views on a particular subject, viz., the requirement that a jury must determine all facts which relate to a sentence, a Constitutional guarantee which was ultimately endangered (in Blakely) and then ruled unconstititional (in Booker): the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. That line of cases is as follows:

(Refer to Morano, "Justice Scalia: His Insaturation of the Sixth Amendment in Sentencing" for pre-Booker discussion of this line of cases).

See also Category:Opinions of Justice Scalia

Scalia, the Court and the electronic media

Jealously protective of his privacy, Scalia formerly barred (or at least, severely restricted) the electronic media from recording his public speaking engagements, citing his "First Amendment right not to speak on the radio or television when I do not wish to do so."

In April 2004, at a Scalia speech in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, U.S. Marshal Melanie Rube, acting as security detail, confiscated the audio tape of a reporter covering the event. After some controversy over the incident, Scalia apologized and stated he did not order the Marshal to do so. He has since amended his policy so that print reporters are now allowed to record his speeches to "promote accurate reporting." More recently, he appears to be relaxing the electronic media structure as well -- at least two of his recent speeches have been covered by CSPAN.

Scalia has also opposed the introduction of live audio and television broadcasts of Supreme Court oral arguments. In a Spring 2005 roundtable discussion with Justices O'Connor and Breyer at the National Archives -- also carried by CSPAN -- he noted that he would approve of both audio and televisual broadcasts if he could be confident that it would go out and be watched gavel-to-gavel. He characterized his objections as relating to the possibility for sensationalism, excerptation, and the fostering of an inaccurate picture of the Supreme Court's operation.

Further reading

  • Ring, Kevin A., Scalia Dissents : Writings of the Supreme Court's Wittiest, Most Outspoken Justice (Regnery Publishing, Inc., November 25, 2004); ISBN 0895260530
  • Tushnet, Mark, A Court Divided (W. W. Norton & Company, January 30, 2005); ISBN 0393058689

References

Wikiquote has quotations related to Antonin Scalia.

Biographical

Websites

Works by Scalia

Newspaper articles and miscellaneous content

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