Antonin Scalia Essay, Research Paper

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was born on March 11, 1936 in Trenton, New Jersey to a Sicilian immigrant father and an Italian-American mother and was raised in Queens. He attended Catholic schools in New York City as a child and teen. Scalia then attended Georgetown University, spending his junior year at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, and graduated at the top of his class with an A.B. (Sorry, I don?t know what that means) in 1957. He also attended Harvard, serving as the editor for Law Review. Scalia graduated from Harvard in 1960.

On September 10, 1960, Scalia married Maureen McCarthy, and the two went to go live in Cleveland, Ohio. While in Cleveland, Scalia was admitted to the Ohio Bar and worked for the law firm of Jones, Day, Cockley, and Reavis until 1967. The Scalias then moved to Virginia, and he was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1970. While In Virginia, Scalia taught law at the Virginia Law School until 1974.

In 1971, Scalia became General Counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy for the White House, and from 1972 to 1974, he was the chairman of the Administrative Conference of the US. Scalia was then appointed the assistant attorney general of the Office of Legal Counsel for the Department of Justice.

In 1977, Scalia returned to teaching after 6 months serving as the resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in DC. Him and his family picked up and moved again to Chicago, Illinois. While In Chicago, Scalia taught at the University of Chicago?s law school (he was also a visiting professor of law at his alma mater, Georgetown University, and also at Stanford University during that time) until President Ronald Reagan appointed him to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit in 1982. Scalia took his oath of office on August 17 of that year.

Four years after Scalia began working at the Court of Appeals, President Reagan then chose him to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed Reagan?s appointment on September 17, and Scalia took his oath of office on the 26th of that month.

In the year 2000, Scalia has made decisions in two Supreme Court cases, Troxel vs. Granville and California Democratic Party vs. Jones. I will discuss the Troxel vs. Granville case.

Troxel vs. Granville is in violation of ?The Washington Rev. Code ?26.10.160(3)? which ?permits ?any person? to petition for visitation rights ?at any time? and authorizes state superior courts to grant such rights whenever visitation may serve a child?s best interest.?* The Troxel family wanted visitation rights to their deceased son?s daughters, and Granville, the mother of the girls, didn?t oppose to visitation, but had a problem with the amount of visitation the Troxels wanted. The Superior Court ordered more visitation than Granville desired, and so she appealed. Then, the State Court of Appeals reversed and dismissed the Troxel?s petition. In this case, Scalia filed a dissenting opinion, stating ?A right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children is among the ?unalienable rights? with which the Declaration of Independence proclaims ?all Men ? are endowed by their Creator.? And in my view that right is also among the ?other rights retained by the people? which the Ninth Amendment says the Constitution?s enumeration of rights ?shall not be construed to deny or disparage.??**

* Quoted from an Internet source, which I will show you some other time. The address is too long to type into here.

** I?ll also show you that Internet address, since it is also too long to type in here.

I have attached the pages with the quotes on them to the end of this work. I have also highlighted the quotes I used.

**SOURCES**

http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/printable/6/0,5722,67716,00.html

http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/scalia.bio.html