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11 unusual facts about Antonin Scalia


Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc.

Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas jointly filed a dissenting opinion arguing that the majority's ruling would prevent government funding for specific ideological programs.

Child pornography laws in the United States

In May 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the 2003 federal law Section 2252A(a)(3)(B) of Title 18, United States Code that criminalizes the pandering and solicitation of child pornography, in a 7-to-2 ruling penned by Justice Antonin Scalia.

EBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote a concurring opinion, joined by Justices Scalia and Ginsburg, pointing out that from "at least the early 19th century, courts have granted injunctive relief upon a finding of infringement in the vast majority of patent cases," by applying the four-factor test.

Erie v. Pap's A. M.

Justice Scalia, joined by Justice Thomas, agreed that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's decision must be reversed, but disagreed with the mode of analysis that should be applied.

Ewing v. California

Justice Scalia was willing to accept that the Eighth Amendment contained a gross disproportionality requirement "if I felt I could intelligently apply it." However, because a criminal sentence can have many justifications—not simply retribution, a goal to which proportionality is inherently linked—it became impossible to intelligently apply a proportionality requirement to noncapital sentences.

Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act

During oral argument, Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that legislatures could create restraints on law enforcement officers that would prevent such tracking.

Giles v. California

In a majority opinion by Justice Scalia, the Court held that a defendant only forfeited his confrontation rights when he intended to procure the unavailability of the witness.

Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB

Chief Justice William Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court, joined by Justices Sandra O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Clarence Thomas.

Inter arma enim silent leges

In 2004, Justice Antonin Scalia used this phrase to decry the plurality decision in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld which in his view, upheld the detention of a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant, without charge or suspension of the habeas corpus.

Jacobson v. United States

During oral argument, Justice Antonin Scalia responded to this by suggesting that some interests a person might express, such as recreational drugs, signified a willingness to violate social norms regardless of whether the conduct was illegal or not.

Lechmere, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board

The opinion of the Court was delivered by Justice Thomas, who was joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Souter.


Aaron Director

Together with his better known brother-in-law, Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, Director influenced a generation of jurists, including Robert Bork, Richard Posner, Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Agostini v. Felton

The decision was generally divided along ideological lines, with Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy joining the majority, and Justices Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg, and Souter dissenting.

Freiler v. Tangipahoa Parish Board of Education

Three conservative members of the Supreme Court dissented; Antonin Scalia and William Rehnquist, who had also dissented from the decision in Edwards v. Aguillard, were joined by 1991 George H.W. Bush appointee Clarence Thomas.

Joseph D. Kearney

A former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Scalia, he is a scholar of civil litigation practice and procedure.

Napoleon Beazley

Justice Antonin Scalia recused himself because Luttig had clerked for him, while Justices David Souter and Clarence Thomas recused themselves from the decision because Luttig had led the George H. W. Bush Administration's successful effort to gain U.S. Senate confirmation for them to the Supreme Court.

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

As of January 2013, four of the nine justices on the Supreme Court are alumni of the D.C. Circuit:Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.