With the recent announcement that the Supreme Court’s longest serving justice, liberal icon John Paul Stevens, is retiring, the nation’s highest court has been much in the news lately.
While the nation reflects on Stevens’ remarkable tenure and speculation abounds as to his replacement, it is important to note that perhaps the Court’s most colorful and controversial figure is Queens’ own Antonin Scalia.
Justice Scalia, 74, has served on the Court since his appointment by President Reagan in 1986. He was born in Trenton, NJ, a second generation American of Italian heritage.
When he was five, Scalia’s father accepted a job as a professor at Brooklyn College so he and his family moved to Elmhurst, where “Nino” was a Boy Scout in Troop 17. He attended Queens’ public schools before going to Xavier High School in Manhattan, where he was the valedictorian.
Scalia left Queens for college at Georgetown, where he was again valedictorian, and then earned honors from Harvard Law School.
Scalia is an originalist, meaning that he interprets the Constitution as it would have supposedly been understood to mean when it was adopted. His originalist approach has come under attack from critics, who argue that he only sees in the Constitution what supports his personal beliefs.
Scalia has argued that there is no constitutional right to abortion and has called for the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He has also written in favor of upholding laws criminalizing sodomy and against affirmative action. Scalia’s dissents are often sarcastic and accusatory, including references to George Orwell and colorful analogies.
Despite his conservatism, in many areas, Scalia has taken the side of criminal defendants in matters involving the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, which guarantees defendants the right to confront their accusers. In a recent important case, Scalia ruled that defendants must have the opportunity to confront lab technicians in drug cases.
It has been said that Scalia’s outspoken advocacy has alienated and at times offended some of his colleagues. Nevertheless, love him or hate him, the impact of this boy from Elmhurst on American jurisprudence is undeniable.
Daniel Egers serves on the staff of Councilmember Dan Halloran and is executive director of the Queens County Republican Party. The views expressed in this column are his own.
