Contact: Sammy McDavid
In early April, the Pre-Law Society of Mississippi State University will pay tribute to the career of a United States Supreme Court associate justice.
Antonin Scalia, who was appointed in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan, will be on the Starkville campus April 6 to accept the society's 1998 Distinguished Jurist Award.
The public program begins at 2 p.m. in the McComas Hall auditorium. Prior to accepting the award from society president Jeffrey J. Hosford of Madison, Scalia will speak on a legal topic of his choosing. A reception--also open to the public--follows in the John Grisham Room of nearby Mitchell Memorial Library.
First presented 21 years ago, the annual award has honored a varied list of national, state and local judicial stalwarts. Retired associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark was the first honoree, while John J. Fraiser of Greenwood, retired chief judge of the Mississippi Court of Appeals, received the 1997 award.
In his role on the Supreme Court, Scalia also is circuit justice for the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that serves Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Prior to joining the nation's highest judicial body, he was a judge with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
A Trenton, N.J., native, he holds a law degree from Harvard University, where he was a Sheldon Fellow and note editor of the Harvard Law Review. After seven years of private practice in Ohio, he held law professorships at the universities of Virginia and Chicago. Previous to his appointment to the D.C. circuit court of appeals, Scalia held several other federal positions. Among others, they included general counsel in President Richard Nixon's Office of Telecommunication Policy and assistant attorney general in the Justice Department.
Scalia is author of "A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law," published last year by Princeton University Press.