Antonin Scalia: Supreme Court Justice

Born on March 11, 1936 in Trenton, New Jersey, Antonin Scalia was the only child of Eugene and Catherine Scalia.  His father was an Italian immigrant who worked as a professor and his mother, an Italian-American, taught school.  Scalia attended public school in Queens, NY where he adopted the name “Nino” (Smith, 1993).   He later enrolled in St. Francis Xavier, a military prep school where he graduated at the top of his class.  Academic success followed him to Georgetown University where he completed his undergraduate degree in History and graduated as class valedictorian.  Scalia went on to Harvard Law School and graduated magna cum laude in 1960.  Later that year he met and married Maureen McCarthy, the couple has 9 children.

Scalia has a very impressive professional resume; his legal career began in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1962.  By 1967 he decided to change professions to and taught law at the University of Virginia for four years (http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/scalia.bio.html).  Scalia made a good impression among his academic peers but his heart was set on active politics rather than academic law.  His next career move was into the government services, where he started as a general counsel for the Office of Telecommunication Policy under the Nixon administration.  Here he successfully negotiated a major agreement between industry leaders to organize the growth of cable television (Smith, 1993).  Just before Nixon resigned he nominated Scalia to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

In 1986, President Regan promoted William Rehnquist to the position of Chief Justice.  To fill the vacancy created by Rehnquist’s promotion, Regan nominated Scalia to the Supreme Court.

Antonin Scalia is one of the most colorful and lively justices on the nine-member bench; no other justice has one, yet alone two websites set up by admirers.  On the other hand, there are critics, who’s complaint is that his originalist ideas tend to freeze the constitution in time, rather than allowing it to speak to contemporary needs (Schultz, 1996).  Justice Scalia does not side with the patriotic or traditional camp, he feels that interpretation is everything. Scalia’s big impact on the bench has been on the way the court approaches constitutional law itself.  He believes in methods he calls “originalism” and “textualism” (Schultz, 1996).  He has encouraged the other justices to be more self-conscious about how they interpret law.  Instead of following the judicial interpretation of the law, originalists go directly to the source - the language of the Constitution of 1791, or the post-civil war 14th Amendment (Schultz, 1996).

WAL-MART STORES INC. V. SAMARA BROTHERS

Wal-Mart contracted Judy-Philippine to manufacture a line of children’s clothing, they sent her some pictures of Samara’s designs and Judy-Philippine copied the designs with only minor modifications. In 1996, Wal-Mart sold the knock-offs and generated more than $1.15 million in profits.  Samara brothers filed suit against Wal-Mart Stores for copyright infringement, consumer fraud and unfair competition.  After a weeklong trial, Samara was awarded approximately $1.6 million in damages, interest, costs and fees.  (http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-150.ZO.html).  Wal-Mart appealed.

On March 22, 2000, writing for the court, Justice Scalia delivered the opinion in the case.   Scalia referred to the Lanham Act, which provides for the registration of trademarks and trade dress, which encompasses the design of a product.   He noted that a product design is only protectible upon the showing of a secondary meaning.  The colors cannot be protected.  The judgment of the Second Circuit was reversed and the case remanded for further proceedings consistent with the opinion.

WHAT MAKES A “GOOD” SUPREME COURT JUSTICE?

There is no one definition of what it takes to make a good Justice of the Supreme Court.  Justices should be fair and in tune with what the law states and be able to interpret it.   In my opinion, I think good Justices should know and keep up with current events related to the law; this usually comes from career experience serving as an attorney.  A good educational background is a must as well as having a good reputation among your peers.