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Antonin Scalia Biography

U.S. Supreme Court Judge / Jurist

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court is the brainy and flamboyant conservative President Ronald Reagan appointed in 1986. With degrees from Georgetown University (1957) and Harvard Law (1960), "Nino" Scalia spent part of his career as a lawyer in private practice in Cleveland, Ohio (1961-67) and as a law professor at the University of Virginia (1967-71) and the University of Chicago (1977-82). He also worked in government during the administrations of presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford (1971-77). President Reagan named him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982, and after four years nominated him to the Supreme Court. A self-proclaimed "originalist," Scalia has made a career of fighting what some call judicial activism, in an effort to interpret the U.S. Constitution as it was written by the drafters and not according to the changing times. Scalia's confrontational style and his openness about his politically conservative views have made him a lightning rod for liberal critics, a role he seemed to embrace in 2008 as he went on a public speaking and media tour.

Extra credit: Scalia is good personal friends with fellow associate justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, considered by many to be his ideological opposite.