Antonin Scalia

Antonin Scalia, age 72, was appointed to the US Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan in September of 1986. Scalia, born in New Jersey, took William H. Rehnquist's seat and is the second most senior justice on the Court. Scalia and his family moved to New York City when he was 5, where he grew up. Scalia married Maureen McCarthy in 1960, they have had nine children: Ann Forrest, Eugene, John Francis, Catherine Elisabeth, Mary Clare, Paul David, Matthew, Christopher James, and Margaret Jane.

Scalia graduated first of his class from Xavier High School in Manhattan. He studied at Georgetown University, the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and studied law at Harvard Law School. In 1974-77 Scalia was the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel under the Ford Administration. In 1982 Reagan appointed Scalia to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In 1986, Reagan nominated Scalia to serve on the US Supreme Court, and he was approved by the Senate by a vote of 98-0.

Scalia is known as a formalist and a core part of the conservative wing on the Supreme Court. Scalia uses a very textual interpretation of the law, and regards past legislative opinions to be irrelevant and not a good measure of how a law should be interpreted. In Scalia's rulings he has been an ardent defender of the rights written into the constitution, as well as well established rights like the right to privacy. He also draws a very clear line regarding the separation of powers outlined in the constitution.

Scalia's opinion in "United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group"(Dissenting):

Full Opinion