One of the most outspoken and colorful justices of the Supreme
Court, Antonin Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1936.
Scalia's excellent academic performance in both public school
and a military prep school led him to degrees from Georgetown
University, the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and a
law degree from Harvard where he was editor of the law review
and a Sheldon fellow from 1960-1961.
 After law school, Scalia briefly went into private law
practice in Ohio before accepting a teaching position at
the University of Virginia. After four years of teaching,
he decided to enter public service, serving in a variety
of positions in the Nixon administration including the Office
of Telecommunication Policy and the Justice Department's
Office of Legal Council. After the Watergate scandal forced
President Nixon out of office, President Gerald Ford assigned
Scalia to determine the legal ownership of the Nixon tapes
and documents.
In 1977, Scalia left government work to return to teaching
at the University of Chicago as well as brief stints at
Stanford and Georgetown. He also served for a year as chairman
of the American Bar Association's Section of Administrative
Law. He returned to Washington and public service in 1982
when President Reagan appointed him to the U.S. Court of
Appeals in Washington, D.C., where his philosophy of strict
constitutional interpretation and strong conservative values
made their mark.
In 1986, President Reagan nominated William Rehnquist to
fill the chief justice position vacated by the retiring
Warren Berger, and subsequently nominated Scalia to fill
the newly opened associate justice position. With so much
attention focused on Rehnquist's promotion, the staunchly
conservative Scalia passed through the confirmation process
by an unanimous Senate vote. He took his oath of office
on Sept. 26, 1986.
Scalia has remained a staunch member of the high court's
right wing and maintains a passionate view that the Constitution
should be strictly and rigidly interpreted. His strong views
have lead to spirited and occasionally combative clashes
with other more moderate judges on the bench who differ
from him in their view of the country's legal framework.
Scalia and his wife Maureen have nine children.
-- By Maureen Hoch, Online NewsHour
| 
