FREE ESSAY ON ANTONIN SCALIA

ANTONIN SCALIA

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.'"**
Bibliography
* 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