American jurist, the first Italian-American Supreme Court Justice, appointed by President Reagan in June 1986 to take over the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger. Scalia, nicknamed “Nino” by his friends, is considered to be an intellectual dynamo who leans to the far right of the U.S. Supreme Court. He would rather that many cases on the Supreme Court calendar be settled by state legislatures. With formidable intellect and scholarship, Scalia is known to vote alongside Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Clarence Thomas but has on occasion voted against the conservative members. He is gifted as a story teller with an elegant writing style as well as a charming personality. Known for his good humor and relaxed style, he can, however, terrify lawyers who are unprepared. A disciplined worker. he demands excellence from his co-workers.
His mother was an elementary school teacher and his father translated and taught the romance languages at Brooklyn College. Scalia, a Roman Catholic, went to school at St. Francis Xavier High School in New York City. He was the director of the marching band and an officer in the Jr. ROTC. He ranked first in his class at Georgetown University. At Georgetown, he studied Latin for six years and Greek for five years, learning to appreciate the precise meaning and origins of words. He went to Harvard Law School and worked as the editor of the Law Review. He participated in many school debates. After graduation from law school, his first job was with a prestigious Cleveland law firm. In 1967, he turned down a lucrative partnership in a law firm to become a law professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
In 1971, Scalia moved to Washington DC and worked as a general counsel at the Nixon White House. He worked as an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. In 1982, President Reagan appointed him a judgeship on the federal appeal court in Washington DC. He went on to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986. He voted to strike down a law prohibiting flag burning as a law against the expression of free speech. He has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and lost by a narrow margin. Scalia prefers to have state legislatures make the decision on abortion rights in the individual states. He enjoys public speaking and likes being noticed when the Supreme Court is in session. He runs opposite to the sedate and reserve Supreme Court justices, appearing animated and responsive during the sessions.
Scalia met his wife, Irish-American Maureen McCarthy when she was a student at Radcliffe. The couple married 9/10/1960 and produced nine children, four daughters and five sons. Gregarious and fun, Scalia enjoys camping trips and regales his companions by leading the group sing-alongs and doing a stand-up comedy routine.
In 1990, Scalia nearly drowned after falling from a raft during an excursion at Salmon River in Idaho.
In January 2004, Supreme Court Justice Scalia took a duck-hunting trip in Louisiana with Vice President Cheney. The trip occurred just three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case filed by the Sierra Club over the secretive nature of Cheney’s energy task force. On March 18, 2004, after two months of public debate and some criticism, Scalia issued his refusal to recuse himself saying that Supreme Court Justices have a right to socialize with Washington power brokers.
Scalia died in his sleep from natural causes on the night of 12 February, or the morning of 13 February 2016, following an afternoon of quail hunting and dining at the Cibolo Creek Ranch in Shafter, Texas.
Link to Wikipedia biography