# Antonin Scalia *Associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1986–2016* Antonin Scalia (March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) sat on the [[Supreme Court of the United States]] as an associate justice from his 1986 appointment by President Ronald Reagan until he died in 2016.[^1] His Wikipedia biography records that he was called the intellectual anchor of the originalist and textualist position within the Court's conservative wing. He argued for reading statutes by their text and the Constitution by its original meaning.[^1] In the Minnesota record, Scalia wrote the majority opinion in *[[R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul]]* (1992), which struck a St. Paul bias-crime ordinance on First Amendment grounds.[^2] The project's Time Table also records him striking Minnesota's announce clause in *Republican Party of Minnesota v. White* (2002). In that case Minnesota Attorney General [[Mike Hatch]] had defended the clause.[^3] Reagan named Scalia on June 17, 1986, for the associate seat that William Rehnquist would vacate on becoming chief justice.[^4] The Senate confirmed him 98–0 on September 17, 1986.[^1] He was sworn in on September 26, 1986, the date the Burger Court ended and the Rehnquist Court began.[^5] His death opened the seat that [[Neil Gorsuch]] later filled.[^1] The project's Time Table links that succession to the pending federal Title VII action against the State, *[[United States v. State of Minnesota (0:26-cv-00273)]]*.[^6] ## Early life and education Scalia was born on March 11, 1936, in [[Trenton]], New Jersey, the only child of Salvatore Eugenio Scalia, an immigrant from Sommatino, Sicily, and Catherine Louise Panaro, an elementary school teacher.[^1] He graduated first in his class from Xavier High School, a Jesuit school in Manhattan, in 1953. He then took an undergraduate degree in history at Georgetown University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.[^1] ## Early legal career (1961–1982) From 1961 to 1967 Scalia practiced with Jones, Day, Cockley & Reavis in Cleveland, Ohio. He then joined the faculty of the University of Virginia School of Law.[^1] In 1971 President Richard Nixon made him general counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy. From 1972 to 1974 he chaired the Administrative Conference of the United States.[^1] Nixon nominated him in mid-1974 to head the Office of Legal Counsel as an Assistant Attorney General. President Gerald Ford continued the nomination, and the Senate confirmed Scalia on August 22, 1974.[^1] He taught at the [[University of Chicago]] for most of the Carter years.[^1] ## U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (1982–1986) Scalia turned down a Seventh Circuit judgeship in early 1982. Later that year he accepted Reagan's offer of a seat on the D.C. Circuit.[^1] The Senate confirmed him on August 5, 1982, and he took the oath on August 17, 1982.[^1] ## Nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States (1986) Chief Justice Warren Burger told the White House in 1986 that he would retire. Reagan announced on June 17, 1986, that he would elevate [[William Rehnquist]] to chief justice and nominate Scalia to the seat Rehnquist would leave.[^4] According to Wikipedia, Attorney General Edwin Meese weighed only Scalia and Robert Bork for that seat, and Scalia was selected.[^1] The Senate vote on September 17, 1986, was 98–0.[^1] ## Supreme Court ### Separation of powers Scalia read the Constitution as drawing firm lines among the three branches, with no branch exercising another's powers.[^1] He was the lone dissenter in *Morrison v. Olson* (1988), where the majority upheld the Independent Counsel law.[^1] He also dissented in *Mistretta v. United States* (1989), where [[Harry Blackmun]] wrote for eight justices upholding the Sentencing Guidelines. Scalia called the Sentencing Commission "a sort of junior-varsity Congress".[^1] ### Legal philosophy and approach Over his tenure Scalia filed more concurring opinions than any other justice. Only two justices have written more dissents.[^1] In 2012 he and Bryan A. Garner published *Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts*.[^1] ## Public attention Scalia stepped aside from *Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow* (2004). Michael Newdow had asked him to recuse because of remarks Scalia made about the Ninth Circuit ruling before the case reached the Court.[^1] Scalia refused to recuse in *Cheney v. United States District Court for the District of Columbia* (2005), a case concerning Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force. He set out his reasons in an in-chambers opinion.[^1] ## Personal life On September 10, 1960, Scalia married Maureen McCarthy. They raised five sons and four daughters in McLean, Virginia.[^1] Their son Eugene Scalia served as Secretary of Labor in the first Trump administration.[^1] Scalia was close friends with Justices [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]] and [[Elena Kagan]]. After [[David Souter]] retired, he told Obama adviser David Axelrod that he hoped Kagan would be nominated. Obama chose [[Sonia Sotomayor]] for that seat and named Kagan the following year.[^1] ## Legacy Wikipedia credits Scalia's advocacy of textualism and originalism with shifting American courts toward closer attention to the text of legal documents.[^1] Writing in *The American Spectator*, Adam Carrington reported that *Reading Law* had been cited in more than 1,000 state and federal cases within seven years of publication.[^1] ## Succession Scalia died on February 13, 2016, at Cibolo Creek Ranch, Texas. The Court was left with eight members during a presidential election year.[^1] On March 16, 2016, President Barack Obama, a Democrat, nominated Merrick Garland. The Republican-controlled Senate, under Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, held no action on the nomination, and it lapsed on January 3, 2017.[^7] The Time Table records the vacancy as lasting 422 days.[^1] Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated Neil Gorsuch on January 31, 2017.[^1] The Senate confirmed Gorsuch 54–45 on April 7, 2017, after McConnell ended the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.[^8] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - Scalia: author of the *R.A.V.* majority (1992), and recorded by the Time Table as striking Minnesota's announce clause in *White* (2002).[^2][^3] - Mike Hatch, Minnesota Attorney General, who defended the announce clause in *White*, per Time Table row TL-0712.[^3] - [[Byron White]], Harry Blackmun and [[John Paul Stevens]], who concurred in the *R.A.V.* judgment.[^2] - Two Time Table rows (TL-0711, TL-0712) call Scalia Burger's replacement. Reagan's June 17, 1986, announcement, the higher-ranked source, places him in Rehnquist's associate seat.[^4] ### What - *R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul* (1992): the majority opinion struck the St. Paul bias-crime ordinance under the First Amendment. White, Blackmun and Stevens agreed the ordinance was unconstitutional but rejected Scalia's content-discrimination framework.[^2] - *Republican Party of Minnesota v. White* (2002): the Court struck Minnesota's announce clause.[^3] - The federal action: on January 14, 2026, the [[United States Department of Justice]] filed *United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273 (D. Minn.), under [[Title VII]] of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]].[^6] - The complaint cites [[Minn. Stat. § 43A.191]] eight times. These citations include subd. 3(c), which requires an agency to explain the reason for hiring a non-affirmative candidate.[^6] - The Department's Office of Public Affairs issued release No. 26-21 under the title *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*.[^9] - Attorney General Pamela Bondi certified the case as a matter of general public importance.[^9] - The record in this pack shows the filing; it does not show a ruling.[^6] - In *[[Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services]]*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025), the Supreme Court held that Title VII's disparate-treatment provision "draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs". The Court also rejected the Sixth Circuit's heightened "background circumstances" rule.[^10] - The term "regime": the [[Iraq Liberation Act]] of 1998 (Pub. L. 105-338) states a policy of supporting efforts to remove "the regime headed by Saddam Hussein."[^11] The project's catalogue of U.S.-government "regime" usages (*[[How Minnesota Got Here]]*, note 40) finds Minnesota the only U.S. state so described.[^11] ### When - Nomination: June 17, 1986. Confirmation: September 17, 1986. Swearing-in: September 26, 1986.[^4][^1][^5] - *R.A.V.*: June 22, 1992.[^2] - *White*: June 27, 2002.[^3] - Death: February 13, 2016. Gorsuch confirmed: April 7, 2017.[^1][^8] - Federal complaint and release No. 26-21: January 14, 2026.[^6][^9] ### Where - St. Paul, Minnesota (*R.A.V.*); [[Minnesota]] (*White*); United States District Court for the District of Minnesota (No. 0:26-cv-00273).[^2][^3][^6] ### Why - The project's Time Table (rows TL-0847, TL-0857) traces a sequence from Scalia's death through the Garland nomination and Gorsuch's confirmation to Gorsuch's later authorship of *Bostock*. The Time Table connects that sequence to the Title VII challenge to § 43A.191. The *Bostock* opinion itself is not among this pack's sources.[^8][^6] ### How - Both Minnesota decisions rested on the First Amendment.[^2][^3] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Antonin Scalia* (rev. 1380652453, retrieved October 26, 2026) — biography, confirmation vote, tenure, opinions, personal life, death and succession; also cited by Time Table rows TL-0493 and TL-0847. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Scalia [^2]: Supreme Court of the United States, *R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul*, 505 U.S. 377 (June 22, 1992) — Scalia's majority opinion striking the St. Paul ordinance on First Amendment grounds; concurrences of Justices White, Blackmun and Stevens. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/505/377/ [^3]: Supreme Court of the United States, *Republican Party of Minnesota v. White*, 536 U.S. 765 (June 27, 2002) — striking of the Minnesota announce clause; Attorney General Hatch's defense of the clause (Time Table rows TL-0711, TL-0712). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/536/765/ [^4]: Ronald Reagan, *Remarks on the Resignation of Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger* (June 17, 1986) — nomination of Rehnquist as chief justice and Scalia for Rehnquist's seat. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-resignation-supreme-court-chief-justice-warren-e-bur [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Rehnquist Court* — Rehnquist and Scalia sworn in September 26, 1986, ending the Burger Court (Time Table row TL-0494). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehnquist_Court [^6]: United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, *Complaint, United States v. State of Minnesota*, No. 0:26-cv-00273 (D. Minn. filed Jan. 14, 2026) — Title VII action citing Minn. Stat. § 43A.191 eight times, including subd. 3(c). https://www.justice.gov/crt/media/1423361/dl [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination* — nomination of March 16, 2016, and Senate inaction (Time Table row TL-0849). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick_Garland_Supreme_Court_nomination [^8]: Wikipedia contributors, *Neil Gorsuch* — confirmation April 7, 2017, 54–45, after elimination of the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees (Time Table row TL-0857). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gorsuch [^9]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, *United States Department of Justice Files Lawsuit Against Minnesota's 'Affirmative Action' Regime*, release No. 26-21 (Jan. 14, 2026) — filing announcement; Attorney General Bondi's certification of general public importance. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-department-justice-files-lawsuit-against-minnesotas-affirmative-action-regime [^10]: Supreme Court of the United States, *Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services*, 605 U.S. 303 (2025) — Title VII disparate-treatment holding; rejection of the "background circumstances" rule. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/23-1039_c0n2.pdf [^11]: United States Congress, *Iraq Liberation Act of 1998*, Pub. L. 105-338 — policy of supporting removal of "the regime headed by Saddam Hussein"; cited for the project's catalogue finding (pinned claim PIN-03). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-105publ338/pdf/PLAW-105publ338.pdf