"What in the world is a 'moderate' interpretation of a constitutional text? Halfway between what it says and what we'd like it to say?"
Biographical Details
Photo: Stephen J. Boitano / Getty Images.
71 years old. Graduated from Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland (1957), then graduated from Harvard Law School (1960), where he served as note editor of the Harvard Law Review. Lifelong Roman Catholic. Married to Maureen McCarthy Scalia, with nine adult children and 26 grandchildren.
Career Background
1960-1961: Received a Frederick Sheldon Fellowship at Harvard University, which allowed him to study law in Europe.
1961-1967: Associate counsel at Jones, Day, Cockley, and Reavis in Cleveland, Ohio.
1967-1971: Professor of Law at the University of Virginia.
1971-1972: General counsel for the U.S. Office of Telecommunications Policy.
1972-1974: Chairman of the U.S. Administrative Conference.
1974-1977: Assistant (for the Office of Legal Counsel) to U.S. Attorney General Edward H. Levi under the Carter administration.
1977-1982: Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, and Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University and Stanford University.
1982-1986: Associate Justice for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Nomination and Approval
In June 1986, President Ronald Reagan nominated Scalia to replace Associate Justice Rehnquist, who had just been promoted to replace retiring Chief Justice Warren Burger. After strong bipartisan support, he was unanimously (98-0) approved by the Senate.
Landmark Cases
Employment Division v. Smith (1990): Wrote a 6-3 majority opinion establishing that laws banning ceremonial peyote use do not violate the First Amendment's free exercise clause.
Kyllo v. United States (2001): Wrote a 5-4 majority opinion establishing that use of thermal imaging to examine a residence constitutes a search, and is prohibited under the Fourth Amendment unless a warrant is obtained.
Hamdi v. Rumsfeld (2004): Joined Justice Stevens in a strong dissent in which they argued that U.S. citizens should never be classified as enemy combatants, and are always entitled to protections granted by the Bill of Rights.
